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"Once identified, Southwest immediately and voluntarily
removed the affected aircraft from service, initiated
maintenance checks, disclosed the matter to the FAA, and
developed an action plan to complete all overdue checks," the
company said in a statement.
Southwest, the largest U.S. carrier by domestic traffic, said it
canceled about 80 flights on Tuesday due to the grounding and
was expecting "very minimal impact" to its operations on
Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved a proposal that
would allow the Dallas-based carrier to continue operating the
aircraft for a maximum of five days while it completes the
checks within the next few days, the airline said.
An ice storm battered parts of Texas on Monday, cutting off
power to thousands of homes and leading to hundreds of traffic
accidents and more than 1,500 airline flight cancellations.
(Reporting by Supriya Kurane in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama
Dwivedi)
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