On Thursday, July 31 a number of different airlines were forced to make cancellations and delay flights due to serious weather conditions. While Southwest Airlines was among those in distress, the airline suffered an extra problem when it was forced to halt all departures.
What Happened to Southwest Airlines Flights?
Southwest Airlines revealed it suffered a communications issue that led to all departing flights being halted.
“Southwest Airlines temporarily paused departures this afternoon due to a brief outage that affected network connectivity to our dispatching and operations system. The system has been restored and departures have resumed. We apologize to our Customers for any inconvenience. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees,” Southwest said in a statement on July 31.
Did Passengers Know About the Delays?
Not exactly.
While passengers were informed of the delay, Southwest’s departure boards didn’t accurately reflect the delays or cancellations from the day. Instead, boards showed both the original and revised departure times, leading to a new statement from airline spokesperson Lynn Lunford amid the traveler confusion.
“We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. Our primary focus is ensuring the safety and satisfaction of our guests, and we will continue to work diligently to minimize the impact of these disruptions,” she said at the time.
While Southwest Airlines found a remedy to the situation around 2 p.m. ET, the interruption caused delays of two hours or more for many passengers as 40 percent of its flights were delayed.
In addition, a full 2 percent of Southwest’s flights from July 31 were canceled due to severe weather conditions in the Northeast. Across all air traffic, more than 600 flights were canceled over 2,100 have been delayed as of 10 a.m on Aug. 1.
Related: Southwest Airlines Announces Change on All Flights Starting August 13
Southwest Airlines Breaks Silence After Halting All Departing Flights first appeared on Men’s Journal on Aug 1, 2025
