LAS VEGAS – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted the ground stop for Southwest Airlines, but passengers can still expect delays throughout the day. On Tuesday morning, the FAA announced that the airline had requested a pause on its departures due to an internal technical issue. This led to the immediate delay of over 1,500 flights across the country, according to Flight Aware, a website that tracks flights globally. Additionally, Southwest canceled some morning flights from Reid International Airport to Southern California cities.

As of 8 a.m., more than 1,500 Southwest flights were delayed. After the ground stop was lifted, the number of nationwide delays decreased to 200. Southwest apologized for the inconvenience caused to its passengers and addressed their concerns on Twitter.

The airline attributed the issue to a firewall provided by a vendor that had malfunctioned early Tuesday, resulting in the loss of connectivity to some operational data.

This is not the first time that Southwest has faced issues affecting its flights. The airline canceled nearly 17,000 flights during the Christmas holiday season due to inclement weather and an overwhelmed crew-scheduling system. These cancellations cost the airline more than $1 billion and are currently under investigation by the Transportation Department.

Credits: 8 News Now

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