All Southwest Airlines US flights grounded following firewall failure

Southwest Airlines experienced a firewall failure that resulted in the grounding of its entire fleet in the United States on April 18, 2023. The announcement came at approximately 9:45 am and lasted for over an hour, causing nearly 2,000 flight delays.

The carrier requested that its departures be paused, as confirmed by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). The FAA later advised that Southwest flights would resume at the airline’s request and that the technical issue was due to the carrier’s internal systems. Southwest later disclosed that the delay was caused by data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure supplied by a vendor.

Customers were advised to use the airline’s website or visit its customer service desk at the airport for travel assistance. The carrier expressed appreciation for the patience of its customers and employees during the brief disruption. According to Mail Online, Southwest’s chief commercial officer, Ryan Green, said that the carrier would do everything possible to repair its relationship with customers.

This is not the first time that Southwest has faced technology issues and mass delays. In December 2022, what began as a bad weather event turned into a crew scheduling event, leading to the airline canceling 16,700 flights and writing off $800 million in Q4 2022. This resulted in a net loss of $220 million for the airline for that quarter.