Southwest Airlines cancels 500 flights after facing connectivity issues. Credit: Tomás Del Coro via Flickr.

US carrier Southwest Airlines said that it is in the process of resuming normal operations after it cancelled 500 flights, or 15% of its schedule, on 15 June due to connectivity issues.

The issue created flight disruptions throughout Southwest’s network.

Aviation tracking website FlightAware reported that the issue delayed more than 1,690 Southwest flights or 42% of the carrier’s schedule until Tuesday.

The cancellation follows a day after the carrier reported a technical problem with its third-party weather data provider.

In a statement, Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said: “Southwest is in the process of resuming normal operations after a brief pause in our flight activity resulting from intermittent performance issues with our network connectivity Tuesday afternoon.

“Our teams are working quickly to minimise flight disruptions and customer impact. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work to get them to their destinations.”

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The airline tweeted that customer service wait times could be longer and encouraged customers to explore self-service options.

Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide ground stop for Southwest. It prevents flights from taking off to avoid overwhelming destinations.

The agency said it ‘issued a temporary nationwide ground stop at the request of Southwest Airlines while the company resolved a reservation computer issue’.

After the airline said operations were returning to normal, the FAA lifted the ground stop.

Besides Southwest, other carriers such as Delta and Alaska Airlines also reported computer issues on Monday (14 June) affected their distribution.