Computer glitch at Southwest Airlines causes mass delays and cancelations

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Southwest Airlines is apologizing for technology problems that delayed or canceled thousands of its flights on Saturday and Sunday.

A computer glitch at Southwest Airlines—and now weather—have delayed 8,800 flights and forced 3,400 flights to be canceled over the past two days.

Southwest Airlines said that a scheduled shutdown for computer maintenance caused disruption across its systems yesterday.

We are experiencing flight disruptions across our network today due to briefly pausing our service earlier this morning as we worked to resolve an intermittent technology issue, as well as ongoing weather challenges impacting multiple areas within our system. (1/2)

— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) April 2, 2022

The company apologized and sent out a message to its customers saying "we’ll continue to update customers whose journey might be delayed as a result of the now-resolved issues."

Meanwhile, storms in Florida delayed more flights for Southwest, as well as for budget airline Sprint, which is based in Florida.

The flight-tracking service FlightAware reports 27 percent of Spirits flights were canceled yesterday, and another 27 percent were canceled today.