A Southwest Airlines technology outage on Wednesday that lasted for about 12 hours caused hundreds of flight cancellations and delays, but by Sunday the airline stated that there were no more mass delays in relation to the original outage.
Southwest Airlines said in a statement on Sunday that there was a full flight network recovery within about 12 hours of the first error occurrence, but according to Flight Stats, Inc. at least 400 cancellations and 2,000 delays were caused by the outage. The cause of the outage has not been made publicly known.
Passengers across the United States, where Southwest is the nation’s busiest airline, were forced to wait in long lines and sleep on the floor as Southwest employees were faced with the task of manually checking in passengers. In addition to ticketing problems at all of the nation’s major airports, Southwest Airlines was reportedly unable to process online ticket purchases for at least three hours.
While the root of the technological problem that plagued Southwest Airlines last week has not been made publicly known, it’s not unheard of for airlines to experience computer system malfunctions. Flight providers like United Airlines and American Airlines have also experienced computer issues in recent years.
Just a few hours of computer issues can result in days of delays. According to some technology experts, the massive volume of programs used between airlines and governments makes it preposterous to assume that such outages will never happen. Many hailed Southwest’s efforts to fix the issue and assist customers with logistics and money-based incentives, but the airline’s VP of Communication, Linda Rutherford, posted the following on the company blog on Sunday:
“Make no mistake, Southwest created this problem. We own that, and there is no victory lap to be had for a situation that has bred disappointment and shaken the trust customers have in Southwest Airlines.”
Although delays related to Wednesday’s computer glitches were eliminated by Sunday, Southwest Airlines will offer extended travel accommodations to customers who had flights booked between Wednesday, July 20 and Tuesday, July 26. Passengers who had flights booked for these dates can rebook up to two weeks from their original departure date at no charge. Due to the outage on Southwest.com the airline decided to extend a fare sale, and delayed fliers may be eligible for a voucher worth up to 50% off on future flights.
