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Southwest Airlines says ‘planned system outage’ affected flights nationwide, including in Houston-area

The airline says the outage is resolved, however, passengers could still face delays

A Southwest Airlines flight lands at General Mitchell International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021, in Milwaukee. Southwest will let unvaccinated employees keep working past early December instead of putting them on unpaid leave if they apply for an exemption on medical or religious grounds. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) (Morry Gash, Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

HOUSTON – A “planned system outage” early on Saturday affected Southwest Airlines flights nationwide, including some at Houston-area airports.

In a statement, the airline said the outage was due to technical issues that rose following routine overnight maintenance, affecting flights that were scheduled to depart earlier Saturday morning.

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Passengers on social media have reported flight delays throughout the country, including at both Houston’s Bush and Hobby Airports.

A spokesperson for Houston Airports told KPRC 2 that the airline’s systems went down at around 4 a.m. but went back online at around 6 a.m. It is unknown how many flights have been affected at both airports.

As of 6:55 a.m., Southwest said that the system issues were resolved, however, passengers who were set to depart on later flights may expect further delays later.

To check flight status, click here.

Full statement from Southwest Airlines:

Some of our earliest departing flights were delayed this morning, and a handful of them canceled, after we experienced intermittent technology issues following routine overnight maintenance. We offer heartfelt apologies to our Customers for any inconvenience, and gratitude to our Employees who are working diligently to make it up to them. We’ll continue to update Customers whose journey with us today might be delayed as result of the now-resolved issues.


About the Author

A graduate of the University of Houston-Downtown, Ana moved to H-Town from sunny southern California in 2015. In 2020, she joined the KPRC 2 digital team as an intern. Ana is a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur, a catmom of 3, and an aquarium enthusiast. In her spare time, she's an avid video gamer and loves to travel.

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