Southwest nightmare continues as ‘technical issues’ delay 1,800 flights
Jack Birle
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In a move that beckoned to struggles past, Southwest Airlines halted all fights for a brief period on Tuesday. The airline is still recovering from the woes of a system meltdown during the 2022 holiday travel season.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced just after 10:30 a.m. that the airline had requested a pause on departures. Southwest flights had resumed at 11:10 a.m.
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The airline attributed the grounding of its flights to “data connection issues.” The company added that staff worked in a speedy manner to “minimize flight disruptions.”
“Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure,” Southwest said in a statement. “Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost. Southwest Teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions.”
More than 1,800 Southwest flights nationwide were delayed as of Tuesday afternoon, and 11 Southwest flights were canceled, per FlightAware.
Tuesday’s stoppage pales in comparison to the airline’s disastrous holiday season, which saw nearly 17,000 Southwest flights canceled over the week between Christmas and New Year’s. The initial cancellations and delays were promoted by a winter storm, but continued problems caused the airline to begin a “reset” of its system, which caused more cancellations for the rest of the week.
The airline is facing several investigations over the mass cancellations, including from the Senate. In February, Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson admitted during a Senate hearing that the December fiasco happened because the company “did not have enough winter operations.”
Last month, the airline outlined plans to revamp its systems to avoid repeating the problems of December. The plans include increasing staffing around the holidays, purchasing more de-icing equipment for its planes, and upgrading its computer systems.
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“We understand the root causes that led to the holiday disruption, and we’re validating our internal review with the third-party assessment,” Southwest Airlines President and CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement last month announcing the changes. “Now, we expect to mitigate the risk of an event of this magnitude ever happening again.”
The airline also said it would allow customers with tickets for flights on Tuesday to rebook or travel on standby at no additional cost.