More than 1,700 Southwest Airlines flights were delayed Tuesday morning by technical problems with the embattled air carrier’s systems.
Operations were affected “as a result of the intermittent technology issues that we experienced,” Southwest tweeted.
The Federal Aviation Administration paused Southwest departures at the airline’s request while the company worked to resolve the unspecified issues. By 8:10 a.m. Pacific time, the FAA said, service had resumed.
At least 1,728 Southwest flights were delayed in the U.S. by 8:40 a.m., according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.
The delays come after the airline experienced a historic meltdown in December, forcing Southwest to cancel more than half of its flights over a week.
After the disruptions, Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green pledged that the company “would do everything we can, and work day and night to repair our relationship with you.” Southwest said it would invest more than $1 billion to upgrade its IT system.
Delayed Southwest passengers aired their frustrations with the airline on social media Tuesday.
“I’ve been sitting on a plane from Las Vegas to San Diego for 2 hours waiting for a ‘weather report,’” one person wrote on Twitter. “This 45 minute flight will now take 4 hours. What a complete joke and waste of time.”
“Sitting on the tarmac at Midway due to a computer problem causing a @SouthwestAir nationwide ground stop,” another wrote. “Airlines require systems that have 99.999% uptime. Time to install some new IT leadership that takes availability culture seriously.”
The Times did not immediately receive a response for a request for more information.
