ST. LOUIS — Hundreds of Southwest flights were delayed at St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, Southwest Airlines requested the Federal Aviation Administration to pause on close to 2,000 flights because of "data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure."
Dan Landson, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, said a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost.
Around 11:10 a.m. EST, the FAA said the pause was lifted and Southwest's service resumed. The airline also tweeted shortly after.
The pause came months after the airline canceled thousands of flights around the Christmas holiday due to “scheduling computer system issues.”
Rosemary Smith was on her way home from San Diego when she got on the tarmac for nearly an hour and stuck in Terminal 2 in St. Louis for another.
"Something is going wrong. They got to get their act together, I guess. All the computer glitches that are happening with them. It's kind of disappointing,” Smith said.
Rebecca Weber, another passenger, said to make matters worse for her, she did not get any notice that her flight was delayed ahead of time.
“Came to try and check in and check my bag and they told me that I was not in yet because my flight had been delayed,” Weber said.
Some passengers 5 On Your Side spoke to Tuesday and during the Christmas holiday debacle said while they believe technology can be compromised, communication cannot.
“I think that's really where a big breakdown is. We pay money to fly on these airlines or have points to use and there's just no communication, so there's not a huge level of trust,” Weber said.
Passengers are encouraged to plan ahead for any delays.
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