What to Know
- Southwest reports "system issues" and cancels 500 flights a day after a different glitch delayed hundreds of flights.
- It's not clear if the issues Monday and Tuesday are related.
- Operations are returning to normal as of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
After grounding flights Monday night due to an issue with a weather data provider, Southwest Airlines is again battling trouble maintaining their flight schedule.
The airline tweeted Tuesday that they were "aware of system issues and are working quickly to resolve" them.
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At about 2:35 p.m., about 90 minutes after acknowledging the delays, the airline issued the following statement:
"Southwest is in the process of resuming normal operations after a brief pause in our flight activity resulting from intermittent performance issues with our network connectivity Tuesday afternoon. Our Teams are working quickly to minimize flight disruptions and Customer impact. We appreciate our Customers’ patience as we work to get them to their destinations. We ask that travelers use Southwest.com to check flight status or consult a Southwest Airlines Customer Service Agent at the airport for assistance with travel needs."
The airline said shortly before 3 p.m. that they proactively canceled about 500 flights Tuesday due to the outage and that they were working with customers to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible.
Southwest Airlines
According to FlightAware.com at about 3 p.m., Southwest has canceled 478 flights Tuesday and delayed another 1,193.
At Dallas Love Field Tuesday, there are 119 flights delayed and 69 cancellations.
Long lines were seen at ticket counters as stranded passengers tried to get re-booked.
"We're kind of just stuck trying to figure out what to do," said traveler Judy Rohr.
Rohr said she found out her flight to Colorado for her brother's wedding was canceled when she arrived at Love Field. She's traveling with her parents who are in their 90's.
"I got them up early, went to their assisted living, made sure they were fed. We Ubered over here, ready to go. We're here over two hours early and here we are -- no flight," Rohr said.
Rohr and her parents were supposed to fly out Tuesday afternoon. Now, they're booked on a flight leaving Wednesday afternoon.
"I sure want to make it to my son's wedding," said Rohr's father Ed Hessek.
Due to longer lines at the airport, Love Field advised travelers Tuesday to arrive at least 90 minutes before their flight and double-check to make sure their flight hasn't been canceled before heading to the airport.
On Monday, FlightAware reported 1,518 Southwest delays and 45 cancellations.
The carrier said issues with its third-party weather data provider for the ground stop Monday evening which left some terminals packed.
