CNN
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Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed after technical issues prompted the airline to temporarily suspend operations Tuesday morning.
Southwest said the flight delays were the result of “data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure,” a problem that led to a brief ground stoppage.
The Federal Aviation Administration initiated the ground stop at the request of the airlineciting “equipment issues.” The ground stop was quickly lifted, and in a tweet at 11:35 a.m. ET Southwest said he had resumed his activities.
“Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall failed and connectivity to some operational data was unexpectedly lost,” spokesman Dan Landson said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines had delayed 1,820 flights, or 43% of its schedule, as of Tuesday afternoon, according to FlightAware. The airline canceled only nine flights Tuesday, according to FlightAware. Southwest Airlines says its employees “worked quickly to minimize disruptions.”
Southwest reported technical issues Tuesday morning and said it “hopes to resume operations as soon as possible.”
The FAA said in a statement to CNN that Southwest “has asked the FAA to suspend the airline’s departures.”
The problems come months after the airline was forced to cancel more than 16,700 flights between Dec. 20 and Dec. 29, about half of its schedule during that period. The airline blames the disaster in part on changes to its computer systems for scheduling personnel. Last month, Southwest Airlines unveiled an “action plan” to avoid another operational disaster.
Southwest Airlines called the latest problem “intermittent technology issues” in a social media post to its customers. Several customers have complained on social media about delayed flights.
“We apologize for the inconvenience, but we hope everyone can leave as soon as possible,” the airline wrote in another social media post.
A massive winter storm triggered service issues over the holiday season, but Southwest had a much harder time recovering because of an outdated crew scheduling system that quickly became overwhelmed, leaving the airline unable to staff its flights. Nearly half of its schedule was canceled between December 20 and 29. On some days, up to 75% of its scheduled flights were grounded.
What created more serious problems at Southwest than at other airlines was that crew members had to call the airline, rather than notify it electronically, to inform it of their availability.
