DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) – The airline industry and passengers are reacting to Tuesday’s ground stop for Dallas based Southwest Airlines that lasted longer than an hour.
Southwest Airlines said it requested the ground stop from the FAA because of a technology issue.
“Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. “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.”
The ground stop comes months after an operational debacle at Southwest Airlines led to 17,000 canceled flights over the holiday travel season.
Passengers were delayed because of the ground stop.
“I am going to miss my dinner plans now, so that awesome,” said one traveler.
“I just want to get where I am going and we’ll be good,” another passenger added.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association was frustrated by the connectivity failure.
The union representing Southwest Airlines dispatchers chimed in too.
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