Southwest Airlines experienced a system outage on October 9, 2026, caused by a brief interruption at its vendor Amadeus. The outage was traced to an intermittent internal network issue that disrupted key systems including boarding pass printing and mobile app scanning.
By 9:15 a.m. local time on October 9, Southwest Airlines reported nearly 900 flight delays and 43 cancellations across its nationwide U.S. network. Operations at the airline’s headquarters and main base, Dallas Love Field airport, saw less severe effects with 56 delays and seven cancellations recorded by the same time.
During the outage, Southwest continued manually checking baggage and
boarding passengers as its standard automated processes were offline. The disruption primarily impacted services provided by Amadeus, which manages Southwest’s reservation system and other technology products. The boarding pass printing and mobile app scanning functions were notably affected, requiring manual processing to maintain operations.
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson said, “The airline continued to check baggage and board flights manually while full functionality was restored.” The spokesperson added, “We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience and are working to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers
and employees.” Lauren Rounds, spokesperson for the City of Dallas’ Department of Aviation, confirmed that Southwest informed Love Field’s operations team about the intermittent internal network outage that impacted boarding pass and mobile app services on the morning of October 9.
The outage disrupted Southwest’s flight schedules significantly, causing widespread delays and cancellations nationwide. At Dallas Love Field, the airport’s operational impact was mitigated but still included disruptions to nearly 63 flights. Southwest Partners with Amadeus for reservation system services. The airline is working to restore full functionality and recover normal operations across its network.
