Southwest airlines experienced hundreds of delays and cancellations Wednesday because of technology problems.
An outage hit multiple technology systems and caused an hour-long, nationwide ground stop for all Southwest flights,
CNN reported. In turn, the early-afternoon outage caused a major backlog of flights.
At one point, passengers were being checked in by hand after automated check-in and baggage systems failed,
according to CBS News.
"Flight delays across our network have resulted in 600-700 canceled and delayed flights," the airline said in a statement late Wednesday evening. "Systems are gradually coming back online and we continue to move toward a normal operation. We sincerely apologize to our Customers whose travel plans have been impacted."
Tracking service FlightStats Inc. counted 400 cancelations and 2,000 delays,
The Associated Press reported.
"I've never seen so many people in the terminal," said passenger Leah Boyd, who was waiting with her husband for a flight to Providence, Rhode Island. "All these people are going to be flying standby."
Most of the technology issues were resolved Wednesday night,
The Baltimore Sun reported, but on Thursday morning more than 221 flights were canceled.
The company issued a statement warning that "recovery will take some time. We expect some cancellations and delays as we position aircraft and crews."
An outage in October caused about 800 delays, which the airline blamed on a software application, and it recovered in about a day, the AP said.
Many travelers took to Twitter to express their frustrations.
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