Southwest Airlines goes down across the US with travelers unable to buy tickets or see flight status

Southwest Airlines has been hit with a nationwide outage plaguing its website and app.

Customers report not being able to purchase tickets or see flight status starting around 2:00pm ET.

Southwest Airlines acknowledged the disruptions on social media, saying teams are working to ‘get it back up and running ASAP.’

‘We are currently experiencing some difficulties given the high volumes affecting our operation, and all hands are on-deck to restore full functionality,’ it shared on X.

Downdetector, a site that monitors online outages, shows major travelers in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago are being impacted.

Users issued reports to Downdectector, with 59 percent citing disruptions with the website, 35 percent with the app and five percent of customers cannot see flight status.

Travelers have reached out to Southwest Airlines on X, asking about error messages they are seeing when booking flights.

‘Our Tech Team has been made aware of the issues our Customers are encountering on and we’ll get it back up and running ASAP,’ the airlines shared in response to a post.

These frustrated travels have also noted that customer service is also experiencing a delay, with some see wait times of over one hour. 

Southwest Airlines is available in about 15 cities across the US, which together see more than 4,000 flights per day. 

The outage comes just as many people are fleeing Florida as Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall this week.

Downdetector, a site that monitors online outages, shows major travelers in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago are being impacted

Many travelers have been given an error message when attempting to book flights

The now Category 5 storm is surging just north of Mexico’s port city of Campeche as it gathers steam on its northeastern trajectory towards Florida’s western coast.

Milton is currently producing as much as 2-3 inches of precipitation per hour close to the eye of the storm (as of 1pm Eastern time), building momentum as it barrels toward Tampa where the storm is expected to make landfall Wednesday morning.

Meteorologists anticipate life-threatening, nine-foot-high storm surges and winds of up to 150 miles-per-hour (mph) as this once-rare Category 5 crashes into Florida.

As many as six million residents are under hurricane watch warnings, with many being ordered to evacuate — even as commercial air travel hubs like Tampa International Airport plan early closures in advance of the storm.

One person in Tampa reached out to Southwest Airlines on X to asked if ‘a flight from Tampa still take off tomorrow at 8 am?’

Another X users, Bill Graves, posted: ‘You just sold a ticket to my daughter in Tampa after they announced its closure. You also accepted payment for two flights and cancelled because the fair went up. But still withdrew the money. Anyone know what’s happening in your company??!!’

Southwest Airlines reposted that Graves should send the company a direct message to further discuss.