More Than 600 Southwest Flights Delayed, Canceled Due to Computer Outage
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Over 600 flights were cancelled or delayed on Wednesday due to Southwest Airline's massive computer outage.
The outage forced a groundstop at BWI and across the country and left many travelers frustrated.
"This is crazy man, I didn't know what was going on when I rolled up here," said Shane Schwartz.
Inside BWI, lines winded around the airport as those waited to get a boarding passes.
"We've been in line since 3:50 p.m. They've been very polite and hospitable, but it still doesn't excuse my flight if I miss it," said Todd Williams.
With the computer system for Southwest Airlines crashing multiple times, the check-in continued to grow - stretching at least a few hundred yards at times.
Fresh off of a lacrosse tournament, Team Minnesota had 90 players stuck in the massive delays.
"Now we've had to sit here for past few hours trying to get home," said Dakota Johnson.
Others like Shane Schwartz banked on checking in on-line but couldn't because the airlines website was down.
"It seemed like miles of people just lined up, this is something unprecedented," he said.
Southwest says it did have some manual systems in place and after a few hours computer systems gradually came back online.
But the damage was already done.
"Never the less, Southwest should take the initiative to reimburse their customers to some degree because the website was down, visitors could not buy tickets, check in for flights or check a flight status," said Schwartz
Southwest says they are investigating the issue there's still no word on what caused the outage.
The airline says they were reducing the number of flights after 9:00 p.m. Wednesday in an effort to fully restore the system by Thursday morning.
"Flexible rebooking accommodation will be available to customers once our systems are full functional," said Southwest in a statement late Wednesday night.
If you're planning to fly Thursday, the airline recommends checking their website and to arrive earlier than normal as long lines are expected.
The Dallas-based Southwest Airlines company carries more passengers within the United States than any other airline.
