Day after Southwest computer glitch, some Phoenix passengers still wait to get going
Jul 21, 2016, 7:50 AM
(KTAR Photo/Jim Cross)
(KTAR Photo/Jim Cross)
PHOENIX — Lines were long at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter at Sky Harbor Airport on Thursday morning, after systemwide computer glitch forced cancellation of hundreds of flights.
At least a couple dozen flights were affected in Phoenix.
The Dallas-based airline said it had corrected the technical problems but across the country 220 flights were scrapped for the day.
The airline said an outage interfered with several tech systems on Wednesday. Nearly 700 flights were canceled and hundreds more were delayed, some even held at departure gates.
Most of our systems are back online this morning. Here's an update and an apology on our technical challenges: https://t.co/vd222aLlOL
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) July 21, 2016
Problems at Sky Harbor were resolved Wednesday, but it was too late for the hundreds who were stranded because of cancellations.
“Phoenix was beautiful, (but) I don’t want to spend another night (at the airport),” traveler Rick Anderson said Thursday at Terminal 4. He was trying to get to Denver.
Beth Heideman, from the Seattle area, had her three small children in tow. Their time-consuming journey had begun in Orlando and they had to change planes in Phoenix.
“Every chair (in the terminal) was filled, people were sleeping on the carpet,” she said. “The lobby area — every chair was full. … It was just insane. The baggage line — insane.
“… I just want to go home.”
KTAR’s Jim Cross and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
