Southwest nationwide ground stop lifted after network issues caused delays

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A nationwide ground stop issued by Southwest Airlines has been lifted, according to the company.

It was put in place after a network issue caused a series of delays.

The FAA told News on Tuesday afternoon that the order was lifted and Southwest is “in the process of resuming normal operations.”

A spokesperson with Southwest told the airline had to cancel roughly 500 flights due to the outage.

“We’re working with those customers to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible,” the spokesman said.

A computer network issue has caused problems for at least three airlines, including Southwest.

Delta and Alaska Airlines were also affected.

The issue prevented the airlines from receiving weather information necessary to operate flights.

According to the flight-tracking website Flight Radar 24, more than a dozen Southwest Airlines flights that were set to take off Monday either didn’t leave or were delayed.

Delta and Alaska Airlines said the issue affected their booking sites and apps.