ATLANTA — UPDATE: The FAA says the pause has been lifted as of 11:10 a.m. 11Alive will continue monitoring lingering delays in Atlanta below. In a statement, Southwest said it was "data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure."
The full statement reads:
"Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure. Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost. Southwest Teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions. We ask that travelers use Southwest.com to check flight status or visit a Southwest Airlines Customer Service Agent at the airport for assistance with travel needs. We appreciate the patience of our Customers and Employees during this morning’s brief disruption."
ORIGINAL STORY:
11Alive is monitoring for an impact at the world's busiest airport after Southwest Airlines requested a pause on departures Tuesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA said in a tweet: "Southwest Airlines requested the FAA pause the airline’s departures. Please contact Southwest Airlines for more."
The tweet was issued at 10:36 a.m. In replies to customers on Twitter, Southwest has been referencing "intermittent issues with our website and mobile app" as well as "technical challenges" as causes for the pause on departures.
It's not yet clear how the issues with Southwest might impact Atlanta, though as of 12:30 p.m. there were 95 delayed Southwest flights at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
Previous Southwest Airlines flight issues
Southwest previously experienced issues during the winter holidays after weather delays caused a cascading squeeze on staffing.
The Dallas-based airline conducted an internal review in March to determine what went wrong in the days after Christmas that led to thousands of flights being canceled and even a federal investigation.
Officials with Southwest released the key root causes in addition to an action plan going forward to ensure what happened doesn't take place again.
Causes for cancellations
- Winter operations: The airline began by saying they did not have sufficient weather equipment in certain airports following a severe winter storm in certain parts of the United States. Staffing problems forced crews needing to rotate out of the frigid weather, which led to the inability to keep the operations running at a normal pace to get flights off on time.
- Cancellation waves: Southwest officials stated that the volume of consecutive cancellations piled up leading to aircrafts and crews having to rely on "time-consuming manual processes," which couldn't keep up with scheduling issues across the board.
- Cross-team collaboration: Officials said that their communications became divided, which resulted in "gaps" in processes, that led to bottlenecks for their "important operational workgroups."
Action plan
- Improving winter operations: Southwest stated in a release they will be improving airport infrastructure, providing more winter equipment for times of need, and preparing a plan to better execute operations in severe winter weather.
- Accelerating operational investments: The airline stated its investments in new technology will "improve our recovery time during irregular operations."
- Enhancing cross-team collaboration: Officials said teams will have better communication to centralize and streamline their decision-making processes.
Some of the new equipment includes new deicing trucks, pads and ground equipment. Southwest will also be increasing the storage capacity of deicing fluid at airports with a higher level to be impacted by severe winter weather. They are also providing more engine covers and heaters in order to protect the aircraft and equipment on the ground in extreme low temps.
Southwest stated these implementations have already resulted in improved operations in 2023, resulting in currently being No. 2 in on-time performance year-to-date through March. They promised their customers they will get back to the quality they had delivered prior to the winter fiasco.
Those who want to read more about their initiatives can click here.
This is a developing story. Check back often for new information.
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