Southwest Airlines Glitch Resolved
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Air travelers were preparing for long delays and massive lines at airports across the nation on Monday after a technical glitch slowed down operations Sunday for Southwest Airlines. However, early Monday morning, the carrier said that the computer problems appeared to have been resolved.
Hundreds of flights were impacted by the computer glitch. Airports all over the country on Sunday were jammed with people, and the delays continued briefly into Monday morning. Dallas Love Field saw lines developing well before sunrise on Monday, but those quickly dissipated.
Southwest Airlines now expects Monday to be a normal operating day.
"I expected delays last night. I noticed online that there was possibly delays today," said traveler Damion Valencia. "But when I got here, I was pleasantly surprised that there was no wait. I printed by boarding pass and I'm good to go."
The carrier had been advising customers to show up for their flights at least two hours early. They asked travelers to print out their boarding passes at home. The company used a backup system to check in customers who could not print at home, or did not have mobile boarding passes. Passengers were being checked in manually and were issued handwritten tickets.
The computer issue also had an impact on baggage handling.
If traveling today, see advisory regarding today's technical issues and arrive at least 2 hrs prior to departure: http://t.co/zFEcEwUziX
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) October 11, 2015
In a Monday statement, the company said, "We have some additional work to do today to get bags delivered and some delayed or displaced customers into open seats. We have teams working as quickly as possible to accomplish that." Southwest Airlines still recommends that customers check in online before heading to the airport, and to have a printed or mobile boarding pass.
It is still not clear what caused the technical glitch on Sunday, but a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines said that there is no indication that their computers were hacked.
"It's never too early to say thank you and to extend our apologies," Southwest Airlines said in their statement. "We'll continue to work individually with our affected customers to make this right."