A computer problem grounded Southwest Airlines flights nationwide Wednesday afternoon, including flights into and out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Akron-Canton Airport.
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In an email to NBC 5, a Southwest spokeswoman said Wednesday evening, “systems are gradually coming back online but we are watching functionality closely and working to catch up”.
Customers complained they could not check in to flights on the country’s fourth largest airline by passenger traffic.
Airline officials said the temporary grounding of aircraft was lifted by 2 p.m., but noted that manual systems were being used until computer operations were fully restored. The airline said it expects to continue to move toward normal operations but that it will take time.
Meanwhile, passengers were taking to social media to voice their frustrations. One flight was scheduled to depart from RDU and two were due in from other cities, but all three have yet to depart. “I went to the kiosk to check my bag and it said my flight was cancelled”, Nicki Wazni said.
Southwest’s website is still functioning normally. Customers who are booked to travel tomorrow, Thursday, July 21, should check flight status information on Southwest.com and plan to arrive to the airport early, as longer than typical lines are likely.
Because Southwest does not operate overnight flights, its network resets each day, meaning spillover delays from Wednesday’s outage should be minimal.
pStay with KTVU.com for updates on this developing story.
A tweet from Southwest indicates that there is a tech issue.
The airline also tweeted that it’s “working hard on a fix” to the waiting room page problem.
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DIA spokesman Heath Montgomery said, while Southwest is holding planes on the ground, incoming flights are landing.
