Southwest Airlines cancels, delays numerous flights at OIA Thursday

ORLANDO, Fla. — Southwest Airlines flights to and from Orlando International Airport continued to be canceled or delayed Thursday after a system outage forced the company to ground its fleet.

The company promised “flexible rebooking accommodation,” but at Orlando International Airport, massive lines for Southwest flights frustrated travelers.

“Total confusion,” passenger Heidi McMahon said. “There wasn’t really any organization. You know, where you’re supposed to go, where you’re supposed to stand.”

Southwest Airlines estimated 600-700 flights were delayed or canceled Wednesday.

By 8 a.m. Thursday, 11 Southwest flights had been canceled and nearly 30 were delayed.

Some of the delays were minor, with flights scheduled to take off a few minutes later than planned. Others were upwards of an hour, according to OIA flight schedules.

On its website, Southwest apologized to travelers for the delays and cancellations.

“We are still working to resolve the issues,” the company posted. “We know you are disappointed and our people are working very hard to restore our systems.

Southwest Airlines had not posted any updates on the situation on Twitter or Facebook early Thursday, but a post Wednesday night promised information as soon as it’s available.

Latest Statement from Southwest Airlines:

Southwest Airlines is reducing the number of flights departing after 9:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time Wednesday evening in an effort to fully restore our system for tomorrow's operation. Flexible rebooking accommodation will be available to Customers once our systems are fully functional. Customers who are booked to travel tomorrow, Thursday, July 21, should check flight status information on Southwest.com and plan to arrive to the airport early, as longer than typical lines are likely. Our Teams are working diligently through the night to resolve issues as quickly as possible.

Southwest Airlines began experiencing intermittent performance issues earlier this afternoon with multiple technology systems as a result of an outage. Flight delays across our network have resulted in 600-700 canceled and delayed flights. Systems are gradually coming back online and we continue to move toward a normal operation. We sincerely apologize to our Customers whose travel plans have been impacted.

Updates will be posted on swamedia.com, our Southwest Facebook page and Twitter accounts.

Cox Media Group