Southwest Airlines cancels 57 flights

A system-wide computer failure forced Southwest Airlines to ground its entire fleet of airplanes preparing for departures late Friday, and at least 57 flights had to be cancelled even after service was fully restored hours later, a company spokeswoman said.

Michelle Agnew told The Associated Press that 43 of the cancellations were flights scheduled for late Friday night departures in the western half of the United States. The other 14 were Saturday morning flights scattered across the US because crews were not able to get to airports in time to make the scheduled takeoffs.

An estimated 250 flights — most of them on the West Coast — were grounded at least temporarily Friday night. The glitch impaired the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-ins, print boarding passes and monitor the weight of each aircraft.

Earlier story

A spokesman for Southwest Airlines says planes are taking off again after a computer glitch grounded an estimated 250 flights.

Brad Hawkins tells The Associated Press that service resumed early Saturday, albeit far slower than usual because of lingering computer problems.  Hawkins says some cancellations are expected due to the late hour, but he wasn't sure how many.

The system-wide computer problem affected the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-in, print boarding passes and monitor the weight of the aircraft. Flights in the air were unaffected.

Hawkins says around 250 flights were grounded, some when they were on the taxiway preparing for takeoff. Most of the disrupted flights were out of West Coast airports.

The Dallas-based airline conducts on average 3,400 flights a day.

Earlier story

A spokesman for Southwest Airlines says all departing flights have been grounded due to a system-wide computer problem.

Brad Hawkins tells The Associated Press that all aircraft in the air are unaffected. The computer problem affected the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-in, print boarding passes and check the weight of the aircraft. He says some flights were on the taxiway and diverted back to the terminal after the glitch occurred around 11 pm ET Friday.

Because of the late hours Hawkins says the disruption was far more severe on the West Coast. He said the problem still hadn't been resolved as of 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

Hawkins couldn't estimate how many flights were affected out of the around 3,400 the Dallas-based airline flies each day.
 
 

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