Southwest Airlines Temporarily Grounds Flights After Experiencing Technical Issues

Southwest Airlines caused delays and disruptions to travel itineraries to roughly a thousand customers on Tuesday, after the Federal Aviation Association issued a grounding order following reports from the airline that they were experiencing technical issues once again.

In a press release, Southwest said the order was put in place because of problems with a vendor-supplied firewall failure which caused a loss of connection to operational data.

Just before 11 a.m. in Houston, the FAA lifted its order and Southwest resumed services; warning that there might be additional delays as a result of the temporary pause.

We’ve resumed operations this morning following a pause in service. Please visit https://t.co/64eTbzR9ph to check your flight status and explore self-service options as we work to restore operations and accommodate disrupted Customers as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/xGLJLsbiQV
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) April 18, 2023

This morning @SouthwestAir experienced a technical issue with one of their internal systems.

At the airline’s request, the FAA paused Southwest’s departures as they resolved the issue.

The pause has been lifted and their service has resumed.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) April 18, 2023

Although the grounding lasted for under an hour, it delayed a total of 1,793 of the airline’s flights and canceled 11 across the country, according to FlightAware.

These delays affected services at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby airports. As of noon Tuesday, FlightAware reported that there were a total of 132 Southwest flights delayed at Hobby and another 12 at Bush. There were, however, no cancellations from the airline at either of the two airports.

This is not the first time that Southwest Airlines has had issues with their operations. During the holidays late last year, thanks to problems with what critics have said was their outdated computer system, roughly half their flights were cancelled.

Customers affected by Tuesday’s delays were able to rebook their flights or travel standby without paying additional charges, Southwest said, on a time-limited offer that must be redeemed within two weeks of their original date of travel.

Customers can rebook online if they are traveling domestically or call the airline’s customer service line.

If customers are traveling to international destinations, they will need to rebook via the customer service line and if they are traveling into the United States from an international location they will have to call into their international site’s customer service line, according to Southwest.

Customers whose flights were canceled can request a full refund for any unused travel ticket or itinerary.

Southwest’s Customer Service Line [Domestic]: 1-800-435-9792