TAMPA, Fla. — An air traffic computer issue that caused an increase in flight delays and cancellations Monday to and from Florida has been fixed.
In a statement just before 5 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the computer issue that forced the agency to slow the amount of flight volume into Florida airspace has been resolved. The issue affected its En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system described as the "heart" of the country's air traffic control system.
"The FAA is working toward safely returning to a normal traffic rate in the Florida airspace," the agency said in a statement.
A Tampa International Airport spokesperson said earlier that there were too many planes in the sky over the Sunshine State. Any plane en route to fly over Miami's airspace, in particular, wasn't set to be cleared until 2 p.m. at the earliest. Flights already in the sky were not affected.
Data from the flight-tracking site FlightAware shows at least 199 flight delays and 23 flight cancellations Monday at TPA.
Flights at several airports, especially those in South Florida, southwest Florida and Orlando, experienced increasing departure delays, according to the FAA's online map.
The travel headaches on a busy holiday travel day follow in the wake of Southwest Airlines canceling most of its flight schedule last week. The company cited issues with winter weather and a breakdown in its staffing technology for its cross-country failure.
Operations at Southwest largely have returned to normal.