Southwest Airlines cites technical issue for temporary ‘ground-stop’ of flights


Flights were back in the air after about an hour of downtime.

Southwest Airlines were temporarily grounded Tuesday.

MANCHESTER, NHSouthwest Airlines on Tuesday morning reported a nationwide “ground stop” on departing flights, citing a technical issue.

Although a statement on the carrier’s website late Tuesday morning said operations had resumed, the temporary shutdown affected travelers around the country.

Southwest said they temporarily requested the FAA pause their flight activity “to work through data connection issues.”

Via Twitter the FAA announced the resumption of flights at about 11:15 a.m.

The flight board on Manchester-Boston Regional Airport’s website indicated Southwest flights had departed the airport just before 11 a.m. and scheduled departures throughout the rest of the day would be on-time or slightly delayed.

In its statement, Southwest advised that customers holding reservations to/from any Southwest destination on April 18 could rebook in the original class of service or travel standby within 14 days without any additional charge.