Southwest Airlines Delays, Cancellations Continue For Second Day

Southwest Airlines was still experiencing delays and had cancelled more than 200 flights Thursday morning, following computer system failures Wednesday that temporarily grounded all flights.

"Most of our systems are back online this morning," Southwest said in a Thursday morning blog post, adding that "recovery will take some time. We expect some cancellations and delays as we position aircraft and crews."

The post said that as of 7:30 a.m. Eastern, at least 221 flights had been cancelled. Southwest said it will release information later about "flexible rebooking" and will "continue to work with each and every affected customer to make this right."

Southwest said anybody flying Thursday should get to the airport early.

The issue affected not just the printing and issuing of boarding passes but online ticket sales as well. A message on Southwest's website said it was fully functional as of Thursday morning.

To the airline's credit, Southwest has been transparent and open during the system issues. The company posted a video to Twitter Wednesday night showing the scene inside of its Dallas "listening center," where employees were responding to customers on social media.

Below is the full text of the Southwest blog post from spokeswoman Linda Rutherford:

I want to start off by once again apologizing to our Customers and reiterating that your experience throughout the past 24 hours is not the service you should expect from Southwest Airlines. Most of our systems are back online this morning following yesterday's technology outages, but recovery will take some time. We expect some cancelations and delays as we position aircraft and crews.

As of 6:30 a.m. CDT, we have canceled more than 221 flights and continue to manage the flight disruptions across our system. Our Employees are the best in the business, and they are working extremely hard to get you and your luggage to your destination. Thank you for hanging in there with us. We will have more information later regarding flexible rebooking, and we will continue to work with each and every affected Customer to make this right.

This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.

Image via Beth Torrence