LOS ANGELES—Another bout with technology issues led to delays of hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights April 18 in Southern California and across the country, exacerbating public-perception issues for an airline still recovering from a holiday season computer meltdown that crippled the carrier.
Dozens of flights were listed as delayed at Los Angeles International, Hollywood Burbank, John Wayne, and Ontario International airports.
In a statement, Southwest Airlines said it was forced to pause its operations Tuesday morning “to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure.”
“Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost,” the Southwest statement said. “Southwest teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions.”
At the airline’s request, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a brief ground stop for all Southwest flights—meaning any planes that had not yet taken off were forced to remain on the ground while the issues were being resolved.
The ground stop was lifted by shortly after 8 a.m., but delays were likely to continue throughout the day as the airline works to catch up.
Tuesday morning’s issues were reminiscent of the technological issues that largely crippled Southwest’s operations over the December holiday period, leading to the cancellation of thousands of flights over the course of a week and delays in thousands more. The issues left thousands of travelers stranded, unable to reach their destinations in one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan issued a video apology to travelers at the time and vowed the airline would be making improvements to avoid a repeat of the holiday meltdown.
