Issues resolved after tech problems forces Southwest to delay nearly 2,000 flights

Hope Unger, Austin American-Statesman
Updated ·2 min read
.
.

Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights across the country, including those in Austin, experienced delays for about an hour due to technology issues, airline officials said Tuesday morning.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the issue was fixed and the airline was resuming its services.

The flights were grounded due to a vendor-supplied firewall failure and operational data that was "unexpectedly lost," according to a statement from Southwest Airlines.

According to FlightAware, as of 10:30 a.m., Southwest had delayed 1,728 flights, which is 41% of its total flights.

“As a result of the intermittent technology issues that we experienced, we should hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible,” an airline spokesperson said in a reply to a passenger's tweet. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we're hoping to get everyone going ASAP.”

Tom Miller, a morning anchor for KXAN, said in a tweet that he was stuck on a Southwest Airline plane departing from Austin at 9:20 Tuesday morning.

“Southwest told AUS just before 9 am about system-wide technology malfunction,” Miller tweeted. “Southwest did not give a reason. Southwest Airlines tells AUS it is delaying flights in and out of AUS.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Southwest Airlines officials blame tech issues for delayed flights