Southwest Airlines said its technical systems were expected to work normally today in the aftermath of a weekend nationwide computer failure that delayed hundreds of flights.
“Teams worked throughout the night in advance of our first departures to ensure the smoothest operation of our originating and later flights,” the airline said in a statement posted online at 6 a.m. Pacific time.
“We have some additional work to do to get bags delivered and some delayed or displaced customers into open seats today,” Southwest said. “We have teams working as quickly as possible to accomplish that.”
On Sunday, customers stuck in long lines waited in the heat at Los Angeles International Airport and at other fields across the nation as a nationwide computer failure prompted agents to issue handwritten tickets for departing flights.
The airline asked that all U.S. passengers arrive at least two hours ahead of their scheduled departures today.
“The flexibility we extended to our traveling customers on Sunday continues throughout Monday, and that will allow those with travel plans scheduled for Sunday or Monday to change their plans at Southwest.com,” the airline said.
LAX police tweeted out a photo of a huge line in Terminal 1 Sunday as passengers tried to make morning flights.
By 6:30 p.m. Sunday, about 450 Southwest flights nationwide had been delayed. The airline operates 3,600 scheduled flights per day. This morning, the airline updated that figure to “approximately 500 delayed flights Sunday.”
The airline blamed the delays on “technology issues, which are requiring us to process customers on their individual itineraries.”
Southwest is one of the busiest carriers at airports in Los Angeles, Burbank, Orange County and San Diego.
