Southwest Airlines has been facing some rough skies recently, and things took a turn for the worse on Thursday with a major internet outage. This glitch threw a wrench into their dispatching and operations systems, causing flights to be grounded, passengers to be stranded, and delays to ripple across their network. The chaos wasn’t just on the ground; it extended to the boardroom as well. Rakesh Gangwal, who co-founded IndiGo and joined Southwest’s board less than a year ago, has stepped down as chairman. This shake-up comes on the heels of activist investor Elliott Investment Management appointing six new board members in October.
The internet outage hit Southwest hard, knocking out their dispatching system and affecting other operations. Within no time, about 40% of their domestic flights were delayed, leading to over 1,800 disruptions. By mid-afternoon, the airline managed to get the dispatch system back online, and flights started taking off again, but delays lingered into the evening. Passengers like Amy Weber found themselves in a state of confusion, as she recounted to International Business Times: “We were about to take off, and then we were told it was delayed. We went back to the gate, then we were told to stay on the plane for a little while. And then they asked us all to leave, get off the plane. Nobody knew what was going on, not even the pilots.” Southwest later issued an apology, emphasizing their commitment to safety and explaining the delay was partly due to ensuring customer and employee safety.
Southwest’s tech troubles aren’t new. Their systems are notoriously outdated, with some still running on Windows 3.1 from 1992. While this ancient tech saved them from last summer’s Crowdstrike outage, it hasn’t shielded them from other significant disruptions over the years. It’s clear that Southwest needs to invest in modernizing its systems to keep up with the demands of today’s aviation industry. #SouthwestStruggles #AviationNews #TechUpgradeNeeded
Originally reported by Simple Flying Read More
