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Southwest Airlines system restored: Carrier blames tech issues for nationwide delays, cancellations

HOUSTON — Routine overnight maintenance disrupted Southwest Airlines traffic early Saturday, delaying and cancelling flights nationwide, the company stated.

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The airline confirmed in a prepared statement that a “planned system outage” led to technical issues affecting flights, KPRC-TV reported.

The “intermittent performance issues” stemmed from overnight maintenance of some of the airline’s “backend technology,” the company confirmed.

“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,” the airline wrote, adding, “We’ll continue to update customers whose journey with us today might be delayed as result of the now-resolved issues.”

A spokesperson for Houston Airports told KPRC-TV that the airline’s systems went down at around 4 a.m. but went back online at around 6 a.m. with all glitches resolved by 6:55 a.m. It was not immediately clear how many flights were affected at both George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport.

Meanwhile, at least 10 flights were canceled and 54 delayed at Chicago’s Midway Airport, KTRK-TV reported.

According to flight tracker FlightAware, more than a thousand Southwest flights were delayed shortly after 9 a.m. EDT, and 179 of the carrier’s flights had been canceled, Fox Business reported.

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