On Friday, Southwest Airlines faced a temporary grounding of flights due to a major computer outage that impacted not just them but several other airlines too, creating chaos for many travelers.
This system glitch led to exceptionally long lines at Southwest-served airports, with outage-tracking site Downdetector noting that some passengers couldn’t even check in.
Additionally, travelers experienced problems with Southwest’s app as the disruption disrupted their travel plans.
As a result of the meltdown, passengers reported that they risked missing their flights even though they had arrived on time. The situation drew noticeable frustration from those waiting in line.
Southwest, which ranks as the fourth-largest airline in the U.S., indicated to The Post that there was a minor interruption with its IT vendor, Amadeus. This forced staff to resort to manual methods for checking bags and boarding passengers during the tech hiccup.
Amadeus provides the underlying computer systems essential for processing airline bookings, check-ins, boarding, and baggage handling.
Temporary issues were logged across various states, including California, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah, where passengers were seen in lengthy lines, visibly upset.
Many flyers took to social media to share their experiences, expressing frustrations about being stuck at terminals without the ability to board flights or pay for baggage online.
One passenger in Denver remarked about staff announcing a system-wide outage, indicating that all grounded planes were stationary across the nation.
The disruptions began post 8 a.m. ET, prompting several irritated travelers to say they were “sitting in the terminal waiting for the computer system to hopefully come back to life.”
By around 8:50 a.m., it appeared that the peak of the snafu had occurred, with Downdetector reporting some improvements in the technical issues. Yet, for a number of customers, travel problems carried on for over an hour after the incident started.
A spokesperson from Southwest expressed regret for any inconvenience and emphasized their commitment to swiftly getting customers to their destinations, stating that customer and employee safety is their utmost priority.
Amadeus, often referred to as the IT “backbone” for numerous global airlines, including major names like British Airways and Lufthansa, attributed Friday’s incident to a “third party.”
The spokesperson from Amadeus acknowledged a brief technical issue affecting Southwest, originating from an external technology provider, and noted that measures were taken promptly to resolve it.
Interestingly, similar technical troubles also affected United and Delta Airlines earlier in the week, with a spokesperson from United indicating their vendor had faced a similar disruption.
