Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights delayed after computer glitch

Southwest Airlines experienced almost 600 flight delays nationwide Friday after a computer problem caused the carrier to temporarily park its fleet. The airline asked the FAA to declare a “brief” ground stop after a glitch with software that automatically downloads flight plans to the agency, an FAA spokesman said. The delays represent about 15% of Southwest’s daily schedule. Flights also were affected by heavy fog in Dallas and by air traffic congestion in Houston. The disruption lasted about 50 minutes, and resulting delays averaged 40 minutes, the airline said. Southwest didn’t provide a number of delayed flights, but said none was canceled because of the computer system problem. About 80 flights have been scrubbed due to weather and the increased number of planes out of service, the airline said. <br/>