Sacramento flights delayed after technical issue grounded Southwest flights across US
Southwest Airlines flights were temporarily grounded nationwide Tuesday morning due to technical issues, according to the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration, resulting in delays.
“Southwest Airlines requested the FAA pause the airline’s departures,” the FAA tweeted shortly after 7:30 a.m. Pacific time. The pause was then “fully canceled,” the FAA said in an update a half-hour later.
“Earlier this morning, Southwest requested that FAA pause Southwest departures due to an internal technical issue at Southwest,” FAA officials wrote.
Close to 800 domestic flights through Southwest were delayed due to the issue as of 8 a.m., according to flight tracking website Flight Aware, including 61 at Sacramento International Airport, which relies heavily on the airline.
The airline in social media responses to travelers said the delays were due to “intermittent technology issues.”
“We have had to implement a ground stop as a result of intermittent issues that were experienced, and we should hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible,” the airline wrote in a Twitter reply.
Southwest Airlines shortly after Christmas last year experienced major problems that resulted in thousands of flight cancellations over the course of several days.
During that crisis, Sacramento International Airport was among the most heavily disrupted of all U.S. airports.
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 8:32 AM.
