Southwest Airlines says ‘brief’ system outage affected boarding, checked bags

(NEXSTAR) – Southwest Airlines experienced a “brief” outage on Friday morning that affected the computer systems used to help check baggage and board flights.

Southwest confirmed the news shortly after travelers began to report delays.

“Southwest experienced a brief interruption due to a system outage at our vendor, Amadeus,” a spokesperson for the airline wrote in an emailed statement to Nexstar. “The airline continued to check baggage and board flights manually while full functionality was restored.”

The Amadeus IT Group, referenced in the statement, is a provider of travel software utilized by numerous global airlines.

“Amadeus briefly experienced a technical issue today affecting Southwest Airlines, originating from a third-party technology provider,” the IT company wrote. “Our teams took immediate action and worked closely with the provider to restore normal operations. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

Outage-detection platform DownDetector showed that passengers began reporting issues with Southwest shortly before 9 a.m., EDT on Friday.

Travelers claimed on social media that their gate agents were unable to scan their boarding passes, or that workers at the check-in gate were issuing handwritten baggage tickets. Others said they were told that all flights had been halted amid the outage, though the airline has disputed that was the case.

“[Flights were] not halted, just slowed due to manual processes,” a Southwest spokesperson said.

The airline’s initial statement also apologized to affected passengers.

We apologize to our Customers for any inconvenience and working to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson wrote. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.”