HOUSTON — Southwest Airlines is under fire again after technical issues on Tuesday caused more than 1,700 flight delays nationwide.
The issues come just four months after the airline suffered a meltdown over the Christmas travel rush.
According to the FAA, Southwest requested to pause all departures Tuesday morning. In a statement from the airline, they asked for the pause because they were trying to work through data connection issues that resulted from a firewall failure.
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Southwest claimed the vendor-supplied firewall went down, which caused the airline to unexpectedly lose operation data. Aviation experts said that while the issues do create an inconvenience for travelers, they don't affect the plane itself and pose no risk for passengers.
It's an issue that led passengers to deal with more unexpected delays from Southwest.
"This is the second time we had to go through in five months," Will Little said. "This is super frustrating. Lock it up. Get it together."
Some people said they got different flights while others were just hoping they could still make their trip.
Nearly two weeks ago, it was disclosed that Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan saw his compensation nearly double last year to $5.3 million after being promoted.
In 2022, Jordan received stock awards valued at $3.6 million, $676,875 in salary, a $195,720 cash bonus and $782,880 in incentive compensation, plus retirement-plan benefits. The eventual value of the stock awards will depend on the company’s financial performance from 2022 through 2024.
A Southwest spokesman said Jordan's cash bonus would have been larger without the December disruptions because of lower scores for financial performance and customer satisfaction, but the cancellations did not affect his other compensation.
Southwest statement
"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."