FORT MYERS, Fla. — Frustrated passengers woke up to find out their Southwest Airlines flights were canceled or delayed Wednesday morning.
Travelers across the country have been dealing with the same thing for the past few days, all stemming from computer problems with the airline.
Southwest Airlines has had to shut down twice in the past two days.
Both departures and arrivals into Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) are impacted as of Wednesday morning.
One couple who was here visiting family in Punta Gorda said they're now expected to get home eight hours later than originally planned.
“We got in the car to come this morning at 4:00 a.m. because our flight was at 6:10, and we were supposed to be home at 10:00 a.m. and now our flight has been canceled. They booked us on a flight that goes through Dallas instead of Atlanta and we're not going to get home until 6:00 p.m.,” said Chris and Dan Niederberger, Indianapolis.
Tuesday, the FAA issued a temporary ground stop across the country for the airline. The stop was requested by Southwest, which had been grounding and delaying hundreds of flights because of computer issues.
Southwest Airlines has had to cancel about 500 flights. Tuesday, it delayed 1,200.
The problems started Monday night with an unspecified technical problem.
By Tuesday afternoon, Southwest Airlines said it was resuming normal operations and looking into the technical issues that caused the problem.
Delta and Alaska Airlines said they are also working to fix technical issues that have been affecting their booking sites and apps.