(NEW YORK) — After issues with one of its weather data providers, Southwest Airlines was forced to ground all of its flights overnight and is now working to restore connectivity.
In a statement Monday night, the carrier shared: “We are beginning to resume flight operations after our third-party weather data provider experienced intermittent performance issues earlier this evening preventing transmission of weather information that is required to safely operate our aircraft. While Southwest Teams and the vendor worked to restore connectivity, we implemented a ground stop to protect the Safety of our Crews and Customers.”
“We appreciate our Customers’ patience as we work to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible,” the company added. “We ask that Customers use Southwest.com to check flight status or, if flying this evening, consult a Southwest Airlines Customer Service Agent for assistance with travel needs.”
While Southwest scrambles to restore service, they are also dealing with frustrated customers online:
So @SouthwestAir‘s weather system is down and as a result their entire fleet is grounded due to a requirement that they have a printed weather report before takeoff. >1hr on the tarmac in a heat wave because of software is even less fun than most software-created problems. Neat
— Justin Searls (@searls) June 15, 2021
Been stuck on the ground for over an hour at Midway Airport with zero updates of when we will be able to take of @SouthwestAir VERY disappointed
— Brittney P. (@brittpank) June 15, 2021
And flight attendants seem to be doing damage control on board:
Our @SouthwestAir pilot is serving water while we’re on a mega delay. pic.twitter.com/8QZvgNGahJ
— dansoto (@dansoto) June 15, 2021
I love @SouthwestAir This pilot has been coloring with my kids! pic.twitter.com/hh3mZGWv98
— Jalynne Crawford (@JalynneC35) June 15, 2021
No word yet on when service will be fully restored.
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