Just days after recovering from a systemwide meltdown that canceled thousands of flights over the Christmas holidays and drew criticism from the White House, Southwest Airlines was hit with a technical glitch that again grounded flights and caused disruptions for passengers.
More than 1,600 Southwest flights were delayed Tuesday and another 140 were cancelled, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
In a statement to Insider, Southwest said its third-party vendor IBM had a "brief outage in their service that provides weather data prior to Southwest dispatching flights."
Federal regulations require pilots to become familiar with all available information concerning that flight prior to takeoff, including weather conditions.
The airline apologized to passengers for the inconvenience and encouraged travelers to check their flight status on its website, adding that "minor delays" were expected for the remainder of the night.
The apology meant little to passengers impacted by the situation, many of whom took to Twitter to post about their flight delays. One woman said she had been on a plane, waiting to depart for an hour-and-a-half. Another man said his flight had been sitting at the gate for nearly an hour.
The airline did respond directly to some travelers' tweets, saying "We truly regret to hear that you've been impacted by a flight delay during your recent travel with us. Please send us a DM with your confirmation number if we can be of assistance on this channel."
The glitch comes after the airline said it had made "solid progress" on "returning baggage, processing requests for refunds, and reimbursing certain incidental expenses" related to the disastrous holiday meltdown that began before Christmas and continued through New Year's weekend. Tens of thousands of flights were canceled.
The airline announced it was offering a "gesture of goodwill" to "significantly impacted customers" whose flights were scheduled to operate between Christmas Eve and Jan. 2, but were canceled or delayed greater than three hours. Southwest said those travelers would receive 25,000 Rapid Rewards points -- worth more than $300 in flight credits -- for each paid, ticketed flyer on their reservation.
"We disrupted many of our customers' travel and holiday plans, and for that, we are truly sorry," an airline spokesperson told FOX. "We have a long and proud 51-year record of delivering on our customers’ expectations and connecting them to important moments in their lives. But we aren't perfect, and when we fall short, we aim to do the right thing. We truly hope customers will accept this gesture in the spirit intended -- along with our sincerest apologies, as we are committed to delivering on their expectations and regaining their trust in Southwest Airlines."
The White House has slammed Southwest and demanded they reimburse travelers for costs incurred because of the meltdown, saying the airline "failed it's customers, point blank."
"The Department of Transportation will hold them accountable to their commitments to make their customers whole. While every major airline faced challenges from the pre-Christmas storm that wreaked havoc on the aviation system, all major airlines except for one -- which is Southwest Airlines -- were able to recover quickly," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding "We'll see fines for Southwest if it doesn't cover a cost."
Southwest execs have vowed to give affected customers refunds and reimbursements for expenses like hotels and rental cars.
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