Southwest Airlines blamed technical issues after more than 2,000 flights were canceled or delayed this weekend.
470 flights were canceled and 1,438 were delayed on Saturday, according to reports.
The airline claimed a “planned system outage” and severe thunderstorms affected flights nationwide.
KPRC reported:
A “planned system outage” early on Saturday affected Southwest Airlines flights nationwide, including some at Houston-area airports.
In a statement, the airline said the outage was due to technical issues that rose following routine overnight maintenance, affecting flights that were scheduled to depart earlier Saturday morning.
Passengers on social media have reported flight delays throughout the country, including at both Houston’s Bush and Hobby Airports.
A spokesperson for Houston Airports told KPRC 2 that the airline’s systems went down at around 4 a.m. but went back online at around 6 a.m. It is unknown how many flights have been affected at both airports.
Travelers affected by the cancelations and delays aired their grievances on social media.
Southwest apologized to their customers.
“We are experiencing flight disruptions across our network today due to briefly pausing our service earlier this morning as we worked to resolve an intermittent technology issue, as well as ongoing weather challenges impacting multiple areas within our system.” Southwest said.