DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines said hundreds of flights were delayed Sunday by technical issues that were forcing it to check in some customers manually at airports and causing long lines.
The Dallas-based company asked travelers to arrive at least two hours before their scheduled departures as the problems that began Sunday morning continued into the evening. It was also asking customers to use airport kiosks to print boarding passes and tags for luggage.
Representatives for Southwest did not say what caused the problem or how long it would take to resolve. Spokesman Brad Hawkins said there was "absolutely no indication now" that the problems were the result of hacking.
At Los Angeles International Airport earlier in the day, several dozen people crowded the Southwest terminal waiting to be issued handwritten tickets. By late afternoon, Southwest said that about 450 of the 3,600 flights scheduled for the day had been delayed.
E.J. Schultz, a reporter for Advertising Age who was taking a Southwest flight from Chicago's Midway International Airport, said the airline was telling people at the gate that travelers with paper boarding passes were fine. But those who had downloaded their tickets onto their mobile phones were told they had to stand in line, he said.
Schultz said he didn't understand why Southwest didn't announce that people should print out their boarding passes at home before getting to the airport.
"If everyone had done that, it would've saved so much time," he said.
Schultz said there was a line of about 50 people at the Southwest gate. His flight took off roughly 15 minutes after its scheduled departure time of 4:30 p.m.
Emily Mitnick, who was flying to Detroit from Denver International Airport, said she missed her 10 a.m. flight even though she parked her car about 8 a.m. She estimated that about 1,000 people were in line at the check-in for a boarding pass. When she went downstairs to the curbside check-in, she said there were a couple hundred people in line there as well.
By the time she got in line to go through security, it was 10:15 a.m.
"The clock was ticking and the flight took off," said Mitnick, who was trying to get to Detroit through a different flight to Chicago.
In a statement, Southwest said it was still having "intermittent" technical issues on its website, mobile app and in its phone centers and airport check-in systems. It said that while it was working on the issues, workers at airports were helping customers with their itineraries.
A Section on 10/12/2015