Southwest Airlines Briefly Halts Takeoff of Flights

Southwest Airlines said late Tuesday morning that flights had resumed after a brief pause caused by a technological problem.

The airline said in a statement that a connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost when a firewall supplied by a vendor went down early Tuesday. The airline said that it had worked quickly to minimize disruptions and that it appreciated the patience of its customers and employees.

Southwest did not immediately cancel many flights, but more than 1,700 were delayed, representing more than 40 percent of its schedule for the day, according to FlightAware, an aviation data firm. Additional delays are likely as the disruption ripples throughout the airline’s network. At the airline’s request, the Federal Aviation Administration had also briefly stopped Southwest flights from taking off.

The disruption comes just a few months after a meltdown around the Christmas holiday that cost Southwest more than $1 billion, frustrated millions of travelers and brought on tough scrutiny from federal lawmakers and regulators.

The airline said it had taken steps to prevent another widespread disruption, including monitoring its network more closely for early signs of stress, updating crew scheduling software and training workers to help with operations when needed.

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