Southwest reported progress on refunds after the holiday chaos but is seeing new delays

Southwest Airlines, which canceled thousands of flights last week and angered passengers, said Tuesday it was making “solid progress” processing refunds even as another issue created more travel woes.

several People chirp Tuesday said crews they The planes could not take off because the weather system was out of order or they lacked the necessary weather information.

Reports of the delay on Tuesday came just days after the airline She said she has resumed normal operations After the holiday travel chaos.

Southwest said in a statement late Tuesday that third-party IBM “experienced a brief outage in their service providing weather data prior to sending flights to Southwest.”

The airline said “only minor delays” are expected for the rest of the evening.

“We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to get customers to their destinations safely and as quickly as possible,” the statement said.

The FAA declined to comment, saying the matter was related to the airline.

In a statement on Wednesday, IBM said it “experienced a limited outage in service to Southwest Airlines, and has worked in partnership with Southwest to restore that service as quickly as possible.”

the FlightAware flight tracking website It showed 138 cancellations in the Southwest — or 3% — and about 1,560 delays on Tuesday. The site reported that there were 24 cancellations in Southwest and 115 delays on Wednesday.

The latest delays came after the Dallas-based airline canceled flights two-thirds of her daily trips most days of the week Ahead of the New Year, it was announced on Friday that normal operations had resumed.

All carriers were affected by a A major winter storm that affected most of the United States over the Christmas weekend, but other airlines recovered.

Southwest Thousands of flights canceledstranding passengers and their baggage resulting in the so-called crash angry travelers.

The US Department of Transportation called it “unacceptable” and Pledge to hold the Southwest accountable. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the meltdown was a failure of Southwest’s systems.

The Southwest CEO has pledged investments in the technology, which he said are already underway.

Earlier on Tuesday, it was Airline It said in a statement that it is working to restore the trust of its customers. Southwest said It has made “strong progress” to correct issues experienced by passengers, including processing requests for refunds and reuniting passengers with lost baggage.

“Southwest Airlines has let its customers down — frankly,” White House press secretary Karen Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.

She said customers should be compensated and sent back with their luggage.

“The Department of Transportation is watching. They are watching this very closely to ensure all this is happening and will demand fines from Southwest if it does not cover the cost,” Jean-Pierre said.

the FlightAware flight tracking website It showed 138 cancellations in the Southwest — or 3% — and about 1,560 delays on Tuesday. The site reported that there were 24 cancellations in Southwest and 115 delays on Wednesday.

Dennis Romero

Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Emma Lee And the Susan Cichalski Contributed.