MORRISVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) – Southwest Airlines had a nationwide system failure Saturday morning causing delays in flights that is now affecting flights out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Edward Lawrence, a White House Correspondent, tweeted he was at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. at 5:39 a.m. and an agent said their entire system was down and no Southwest flights could board.
He later said a gate agent told him flights nationwide were grounded.
As of right now, numerous flights Saturday morning have been impacted, but the first three reported out of RDU were as follows:
Flight 4108 to Orlando, Florida, that was originally scheduled to leave at 9:45 a.m. has been to 11:21 a.m.;
Flight 971 to Atlanta, Georgia has been delayed from 5:35 a.m. to 7:10 a.m.;
Flight 2157 to Chicago has been delayed from 6 a.m. to 7:35 a.m. Despite RDU’s website saying the flight departed, a passenger aboard the flight emailed CBS 17 saying it has yet to take off.
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Just before 7 a.m., Lawrence tweeted the same gate agent said Southwest’s system is back up, but the delay put them behind nationwide and it is now trying to catch back up.
CBS 17 reached out to Raleigh-Durham International Airport officials around 6:45 a.m. to see what flights, if any, were impacted in the area.
According to FlightAware and RDU’s official website, Southwest flights remained unimpacted until approximately 7:15 a.m.
The spokesperson with RDU said to monitor the boards in case flight arrivals nationwide stay backed up throughout the day.
https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/southwest-airlines-system-goes-down-nationwide-affecting-saturday-morning-flights-possibly-longer/