A repeat of this past December’s catastrophic failure suffered by the airline occurred Tuesday morning when all flights were grounded nationwide due to “technical errors.” The news broke with disgruntled passengers taking to social media to voice their disdain.
Currently stuck on a @SouthwestAir plane at @AUStinAirport. @KXAN_News confirms Southwest told AUS just before 9 am about system-wide technology malfunction. Southwest did not give a reason. Southwest Airlines tells AUS it is delaying flights in and out of AUS. pic.twitter.com/iknyJDxfdD
— Tom Miller (@TomMillerKXAN) April 18, 2023
The flight tracking website FlightAware stated that roughly 30 percent of Southwest’s schedule was delayed, accounting for nearly 2,500 of the airline’s flights.
“We have had to implement a ground stop as a result of intermittent issues that were experienced, and we should hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible,” a tweet read from a Southwest Airlines representative in reply to a furious traveler who claimed to be “sitting in a plane waiting for computers to come back.”
Predictably, passengers expressed their dissatisfaction with the company, citing this as not being the first time they have encountered these issues with the carrier.
Sitting here at DIA as well but stuck on the plane
— corundum 72 (@Corundum) April 18, 2023
The FAA has since lifted the nationwide ground stop after issuing the order early on Tuesday, citing “equipment issues.” A hold on flights landing at Dallas Love Field Airport remains, and other residual delays could result from the pause.
Today’s problems come only months after the airline canceled more than 16,700 flights during the demanding week of travel between December 20 and 29, attributing the collapse in part to alterations to its staff scheduling computer systems. Just last month, the airline unveiled an “action plan” to avoid another operational failure.
Add comment