Southwest Airlines experienced a system outage on October 9, 2026, caused by technical issues at its vendor Amadeus, which provides the airline’s reservation system and other related software. The outage affected operations across the United States and resulted in significant flight disruptions by mid-morning.
Scope of Flight Delays and Cancellations
By 9:15 a.m. Central Daylight Time on October 9, nearly 900 Southwest flights were delayed nationwide. Additionally, 43 cancellations were recorded across the airline’s network, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Dallas Love Field airport in Texas reported fewer disruptions, with 56 flight delays and 7 cancellations as of 9:15 a.m.
Operational Response During Outage
The outage affected Southwest’s
internal network systems, disrupting boarding pass printing and mobile app scanning. At Dallas Love Field, these issues interfered with standard boarding processes. Southwest responded by manually checking passengers’ baggage and boarding flights throughout the disruption until full system functionality was restored.
Official Statements on Outage and Safety
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson confirmed the airline was managing the situation by manually handling baggage and boarding. “Southwest experienced a brief interruption due to a system outage at our vendor, Amadeus. 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,” the spokesperson said.
Lauren Rounds, spokesperson for the City of Dallas’ Department of Aviation, stated, “Love Field’s operations team was told by Southwest that the airline had been experiencing an intermittent internal network outage Friday morning, impacting boarding pass printing and mobile app scanning.” The manual processes mitigated the impact at Dallas Love Field despite the network issues.
