
The fallout from the Tuesday morning disruption was far smaller, but it’s a further repetitional hit for Southwest, struggling to shake off December headlines.
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Southwest pledged to invest $1.3 billion to upgrade and maintain its IT system in 2023 and has admitted that the chaos will likely cost it up to $1 billion in compensation and reimbursement cost and lost revenue. The meltdown triggered investigations by the Department of Transportation and the Senate Commerce Committee. Observers have blamed Southwest’s difficulties on its outdated crew-scheduling software, which couldn’t match crews with understaffed flights, and a breakdown in communications between operations centers. Keller, Southwest AirlinesĪs the weather cleared, the airline still canceled thousands of flights, misplaced luggage, and left stranded passengers and crew on hold for hours to arrange alternative transportation and accommodation. between December 21 and 26, bringing freezing temperatures and blizzard conditions from coast to coast, Southwest struggled to recover. While all airlines experienced difficulties when a “bomb cyclone” struck the U.S. The hiccup comes just four months after Southwest infuriated around two million travelers when it canceled 16,700 flights around the holidays. Southwest said it “appreciate the patience” of its passengers and crew during the “brief disruption.” Southwest Teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions,” the carrier said in a statement. “Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down, and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost. In the aftermath, the airline blamed the pause on the failure of a firewall provided by a third party.

Ultimately, Southwest canceled fewer than a dozen flights on Tuesday, according to data from FlightAware.

The ground stop was lifted less than an hour after it was issued, and Southwest resumed operations with “no further impact” on flight activity. Photo: Southwest Airlines control center.
