DALLAS — Southwest Airlines planes have been grounded nationwide for what the airline referred to as an intermittent know-how concern, inflicting greater than 1,700 flight delays Tuesday simply 4 months after the service suffered a meltdown over the Christmas journey rush.
The maintain on departures was lifted by late morning, shortly after it was introduced, in line with Southwest and the Federal Aviation Administration, however not earlier than visitors at airports from Denver to New York City backed up.
“Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure,” the Dallas airline stated in a ready assertion. “Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost.”
The airline urged prospects to examine on their flight standing “and explore self-service options” for journey because the airline labored on restoring its operation.
By late morning on the East Coast, Southwest accounted for effectively over half of all delays nationwide, however the airline had canceled fewer than a dozen flights, in line with FlightAware.
Tuesday’s flight freeze was temporary, however it added to the image of an airline that has struggled greater than most with know-how points. CEO Robert Jordan has launched into a marketing campaign to restore the airline’s broken status.
In December, Southwest canceled practically 17,000 flights over the Christmas vacation resulting from dangerous climate and its crew-scheduling system changing into overwhelmed. Those cancellations price the airline greater than $1 billion. The Transportation Department is investigating the breakdown.
The airline’s unions have stated they warned administration about issues with the crew-scheduling system after a earlier meltdown in October 2021.
Southwest stated final month it could add deicing tools and improve staffing throughout winter climate that’s chilly sufficient to restrict the period of time that floor employees can keep outdoors.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”