Southwest Airlines Faces Travel Delays After Morning Ground Stop
Southwest Airlines is off to a rough start on this Tuesday morning. Reports started coming in early this morning that the airline requested a “ground stop” on flights due to a technical issue. This meant that all of the airline’s flights were put on hold nationwide.
We know that the airline requested the stop at 7:30 am this morning and it was officially lifted at 8:15 am. However, the starting the day with delays means that many flying Southwest today will experience delays as a knock-on effect of this morning’s incident.
Photo: Boston.com
The FAA took to social media this morning to explain the ground stop which you can check out below.
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
Hundreds of flights across the country are expected to be delayed as a result of the ground stop. Southwest has issued their own statement regarding this morning’s technical difficulties saying:
“Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure. 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. We ask that travelers use Southwest.com to check flight status or visit a Southwest Airlines Customer Service Agent at the airport for assistance with travel needs. We appreciate the patience of our Customers and Employees during this morning’s brief disruption.”
So it looks like the reason for the ground stop had nothing to do with the planes but rather a data/firewall issue. The airline also took to Twitter to advise travelers to check their flight status as a precaution.
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 is a story that we will continue to monitor closely. Readers are encouraged to keep following along with MickeyBlog for further Disney-related news and updates. We’ll be coming to you LIVE! from the theme parks each and every week.
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Source: ABC
