Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights delayed due to tech troubles

Hundreds of flights of Southwest Airlines Co were stopped for a brief while across the USA owing to an internal technical issue. The operations were resumed minutes later.

"Earlier this morning, Southwest requested that FAA pause Southwest departures due to an internal technical issue," the US Federal Aviation Authority said in a statement.

Nearly 40 minutes later, the agency tweeted that the pause has been lifted.

According to media reports, 1,700 of the airline’s flights were delayed due to a technical issue.

“As a result of the intermittent technology issues that we experienced, we should hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we’re hoping to get everyone going ASAP,” Southwest Airlines told a social media user.

The shares of the airliner declined by over one per cent in the morning trade after the news of the delay.

The glitch and subsequent delay in flights come just a few months after the airline canceling over 16,700 flights between Christmas and New Year's Eve 2022 due to technical trouble.