Passengers trying to fly with Southwest Airlines are reportedly still experiencing delays Monday morning following the Dallas-based airline’s earlier warning that “technology challenges” could delay the check-in process over the weekend.
Technical problems delayed more than 800 of the 3,355 Southwest Airlines (LUV) flights scheduled for Sunday, when the airline warned customers that it was relying on back-up computer systems to check-in passengers around the country. Southwest urged customers traveling Sunday evening or Monday to go online to check-in for their flights and print boarding passes before heading to the airport. The airline also suggested that passengers arrive at the airport at least two hours ahead of their flight departure time.
In a statement posted to the airline’s website and updated Sunday evening, Southwest warned passengers of continuing problems with the company’s systems. “Intermittent performance issues continue impacting our in-airport Customer Service technology systems and across our online platforms (Southwest.com, Southwest Mobile App and site),” the company said.
Southwest has yet to state publicly what caused the glitch or how long it will be before it is resolved, though a company spokesman told CBS News that the airline had seen no evidence of any hacking.
Delays on Sunday led to reports of exceptionally long wait times at airports around the country, with images of massive airport lines making the rounds on social media:
Southwest is still experiencing a nationwide passenger processing system outage. Avoid delays arrive early. Pic.twitter.com/OyPX72ecO0
— LA Airport PD (@LAAirportPD) October 11, 2015
UPDATE: Southwest issued a follow-up statement this morning claiming that the technical glitch that caused hundreds of delayed flights on Sunday had been fixed. The airline said it expected its customer service systems to function normally through the rest of the day today. The issues with Southwest’s computer system delayed roughly 836 flights on Sunday, while the airline also said it would work today to ensure that any displaced travelers and all passengers’ bags were able to reach their destinations.
A Southwest spokesperson told Coins2Day in an email: “The technical issue was isolated to a software application which failed and was able to be restored. It took our technology team several hours to test and isolate the specific application that was causing the Customer Service issues. There is nothing to indicate the technical issues were a result of any security or data breach.”