Systemwide computer outages disrupt flights at multiple airlines

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday said that flights at five airlines had been affected by computer issues.

“Several airlines are experiencing issues with a non-FAA flight planning weight and balance program called Aerodata. Mainline operations and regional operations are affected to varying degrees,” the agency told The Hill.

{mosads}”Airlines included Southwest (SWA), United (UAL), JetBlue (JBU), Alaska (ASA) and Delta (DAL).”

The FAA told The Hill at 8 a.m. that “the issue has been resolved.”

The agency tweeted about the issue earlier in the morning, telling travelers to contact their “airline directly” for information. 

“Several U.S. #airlines are experiencing computer issues this morning,” the agency tweeted. “Please contact your airline directly for flight information and updates. The #FAA does not cancel flights.”

#Traveler Alert✈️: Several U.S. #airlines are experiencing computer issues this morning. Please contact your airline directly for flight information and updates. The #FAA does not cancel flights. #FlySmart pic.twitter.com/5x4U3f6ogu

— The FAA (@FAANews) April 1, 2019

The FAA tagged United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways and Alaska Air in its tweet.

“We’re truly sorry for the delay on your flight this morning,” Southwest said in a tweet posted around 7 a.m. “We’re working through some technical difficulties, and sincerely appreciate your patience while we work diligently to have this resolved as quickly as possible.”

The airline then said around 7:30 a.m. that “we have received word that the problem has now been resolved.”

Southwest told The Hill they had lifted their ground stop, which lasted around 40 minutes.

“As of 6:05 a.m. CDT, Southwest Airlines has lifted an internal ground stop implemented for about 40 minutes this morning during an outage with a vendor that services multiple carriers with data used in flight planning,” the airline said in a statement.

Delta told The Hill that the computer issue had caused it some delays, but did not force any cancellations.

“A brief third-party technology issue that prevented some Delta Connection flights from being dispatched on time this morning has been resolved,” the airline said in a statement. “No cancellations are expected due to the issue and our teams are working to resolve some resulting delays. We apologize to customers for any inconvenience.”

Earlier in the morning, Delta had tweeted about the outage.

“I completely apologize, we are currently experiencing a System-Wide Outage we are working diligently to get it back up and running. We do not have a specific time as yet,” the airline tweeted. 

I completely apologize, we are currently experiencing a System-Wide Outage we are working diligently to get it back up and running. We do not have a specific time as yet. TMC

— Delta (@Delta) April 1, 2019

United said about 150 of their flights had been affected by the computer issue.

“Some of our regional carriers experienced an issue with a flight planning program this morning that impacted operations, resulting in delays for select United Express flights,” the airline said in a statement to The Hill. “Our team worked quickly with our partners to resolve the issue.”

Earlier, United had said in explaining delays to a customer that it was “experiencing an outage that is impacting our ability to create release paperwork.” 

It is not immediately clear what caused the outage.

This developing report was last updated at 9:13 a.m.