Southwest Airlines power outage delays hundreds of flights at BWI and nationwide

BALTIMORE -  Southwest Airlines had massive delays nationwide, which impacted flights to and from BWI Airport, after power outages at one of its data centers.

About 170 Southwest Airlines flights in and out of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport were delayed on Wednesday, according to FlightAware.

Southwest Airlines confirmed delays were caused by a power outage at one of their data centers in the Dallas, Texas area.

The power outages have been resolved, according to a Southwest spokesperson.

"While we were able to continue overall operations, some flights across the system were delayed while our Teams addressed the outage and restarted systems," a spokesperson said. "We apologize to our customers and appreciate their patience as we work to get them to their destinations as quickly and safely as possible."  

Southwest Airlines launched a new program earlier this month to settle late flights with passengers, offering vouchers.

Southwest Airlines paid a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million agreement to settle a federal investigation into a meltdown in December 2022 when the airline canceled thousands of flights and stranded more than 2 million travelers over the holidays.  

Nearly 17,000 Southwest flights were canceled during the holiday season because of a winter storm and a crew rescheduling system that struggled to keep up.