PHOENIX — Southwest Airlines reportedly requested a "ground stop," and all of the airline's flights were delayed nationwide Tuesday morning. The FAA says the pause has since been lifted, but delays are expected to continue through the morning.
The FAA says Southwest requested the stop this morning just after 7:30 a.m. It was lifted just before 8:15 a.m.
This morning @SouthwestAir experienced a technical issue with one of their internal systems.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) April 18, 2023
At the airline’s request, the FAA paused Southwest’s departures as they resolved the issue.
The pause has been lifted and their service has resumed.
More than 150 flights to or from Sky Harbor Airport have been delayed because of the technical issue, according to Flight Aware as of 1:30 p.m.
Southwest Airlines released the following statement in response to the issue:
Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this 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. Southwest Teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions. We ask that travelers use Southwest.com to check flight status or visit a Southwest Airlines Customer Service Agent at the airport for assistance with travel needs. We appreciate the patience of our Customers and Employees during this morning’s brief disruption.
While at Sky Harbor Airport this morning we asked travelers how long they were being delayed.
"Almost an hour," said Joe Maughan.
Maughan says this isn't the first time Southwest has let him down, "We missed Christmas over delays with Southwest. So it's been really frustrating. It's been happening more and more. Honestly it's almost to a point where I might have to be looking at a different, you know, provider."
Maughan was caught up in the carrier's mess that unfolded from December 20-29 of last year, leaving millions stranded across the nation.
"Honestly it's almost to a point where I might have to be looking at a different, you know, provider," Maughan told ABC15.
