Travelers booked on Southwest Airlines flights were confronted with thousands of cancellations and delays this week thanks to technical issues that impacted the airline’s systems.
The issues revolved around problems with feeds from a third-party weather data provider on Monday. That was followed by a network connectivity issue on Tuesday afternoon that affected its reservation system. Southwest doesn’t believe the two issues were connected, but it's still investigating that possibility.
With its hands full, Southwest asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its help on Tuesday. The agency tweeted that it issued a temporary nationwide grounding at the airline's request. By late afternoon on Tuesday, the FAA stated that Southwest was "in the process of resuming normal operations."
When all was said and done, 500 Southwest flights were estimated to be canceled, and somewhere between 900 and 1,300 flights were delayed.
Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines also affected
According to a variety of media reports, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines also suffered technical issues that impacted their booking apps and sites. Delta sent ABC News a statement on the issue on Monday night.
"Delta teams are working to quickly address a technical issue that is making it difficult for customers to purchase flights on delta.com, the Fly Delta app, and through our Reservations Call Center. The ability to check in for flights is not affected. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this is causing," the airline said.