PHOENIX — Editor's note: The above video aired in Jan. 2023.
Numerous Southwest Airlines departure flights faced delays in Phoenix early Tuesday morning after the FAA grounded the airlines' flights nationwide due to "intermittent technology issues."
At the airline’s request, the FAA paused Southwest’s departures as they resolved the issue," the FAA said at 8:10 a.m. in a tweet. "The pause has been lifted and their service has resumed."
Despite lifting the grounding order, the airline saw 161 delays on Tuesday.
Ticketing was running smoothly at the airport, with no major lines.
MORE ON THE NATIONWIDE FLIGHT PAUSE: Southwest Airlines flights temporarily grounded nationwide
Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego called the incident "unacceptable" and pointed the delays as a reason for the nation needing a permanent FAA administrator.
"During Southwest's debacle during the winter holidays four months ago, I sent a letter to the airline's CEO asking what is being done to prevent similar situations in the future," Gallego tweeted. "No response, but here we are again..."
Southwest sent the following statement after the FAA lifted the flight pause:
Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure. Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost. Southwest Teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions. We ask that travelers use Southwest.com to check flight status or visit a Southwest Airlines Customer Service Agent at the airport for assistance with travel needs. We appreciate the patience of our Customers and Employees during this morning’s brief disruption.
This is a developing story. Tune in to 12News for the latest information.
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