Southwest passengers face major delays

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As many as 700 Southwest Airlines flights were canceled or delayed on Wednesday due to a nationwide system outage. 

Oakland Airport told KTVU that a ground stop was lifted for its airport, but there are still major delays and the airline advised many of its passengers who expressed aggravation to check ahead on their flights for Thursday.  

11 departing flights were were canceled at Mineta San Jose International Airport.. 

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport had tweeted, "The Southwest Airlines systems are back up and running at PHX, but it is always a good idea to check your flight status." 

Southwest Airlines issued the following statement on Wednesday evening:

Southwest Airlines is reducing the number of flights departing after 9:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time Wednesday in an effort to fully restore our system in preparation of tomorrow's operation. Flexible rebooking accommodation will be available to Customers once our systems are fully functional. Customers who are booked to travel tomorrow, Thursday, July 21, should check flight status information on Southwest.com and plan to arrive to the airport early, as long lines may occur. Our Teams will continue to work diligently through the night to resolve any outstanding issues.

Southwest Airlines began experiencing intermittent performance issues earlier this afternoon with multiple technology systems as a result of an outage. Flight delays across our network have resulted in 600-700 canceled and hundreds of delayed flights. Systems are gradually coming back online and we continue to enable a fully restored operation. We sincerely apologize to our Customers whose travel plans have been impacted.

Updates will be posted on swamedia.com, our Southwest Facebook page and Twitter accounts.

Southwest passengers from around the country are tweeting about long wait times.