Technology outage causes air delays at Southwest

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co. has been struggling with technology woes that led to delayed flights and snarled its revamped frequent-flier program.

The airline said Wednesday that it suffered a 90-minute telecommunications outage that delayed 300 flights on Tuesday by an average of 20 to 40 minutes. Late Tuesday, flights at McCarran International Airport were delayed.

The outage left airport agents unable to swipe boarding passes over readers as passengers got on planes, said Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz. Agents had to handle the boarding process manually until the outage ended. No flights were canceled, he said.

Southwest customers also had problems using the overhauled Rapid Rewards frequent-flier program immediately after it was rolled out Tuesday. They were unable to get information about their accounts or make any changes to them. Some said their accounts went to zero points.