Computer Glitch Causes Flight Delays At Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International
FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A software glitch led to dozens of flight delays at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Monday morning and hundreds of flight delays nationwide.
The delays affected major airlines like Southwest, Delta, Spirit, and Jetblue.
Luke Eades and his wife arrived at the airport ready to head home to Indianapolis after a week long cruise. A delay of just 30 minutes threatens to upend their travel plans.
"We got to the airport today and we went to their little kiosk today and it said we couldn't check our bags," Eades said. "We only had 35 minutes to get from one plane to the next in Atlanta so it affected it a lot."
Klemie Christie was delayed an hour on her flight. She said she knew nothing about it until she got to the airport.
"I didn't know anything," she said. "Not until I got here today."
She hoped the delay wouldn't extend past an hour and she did not believe it would affect her plans.
"Right now not unless it's gonna last longer than that because the person picking me up has to work," she said.
A look at the flight board showed the delays impacting many area s— the Northeast, Midwest, and the islands.
Southwest Airlines said they grounded their planes for about 40 minutes Monday morning because of a software outage from a third party vendor. That software provides important data for flight planning. Many travelers — like Luke Eades — seemed to take it in stride.
"If I was on business I'd be frustrated but no, I'm not," he said. "Gonna go with the flow for now."
We reached out to Delta and Southwest Airlines. Delta said in a statement: "A brief third party technology issue that prevented some Delta Connections flights from being dispatched on time this morning has been resolved. No cancellations are expected due to the issue and our teams are working to resolve some resulting delays. We apologize to customers for any inconvenience."
Southwest Airlines said much the same.
CBS4 News checked at Miami International. It seemed like there were no major problems there.