Southwest Airlines offers 50% off sale amid computer issues, flight delays
Customers have only 48 hours to book
After facing computer issues and subsequent flight cancellations for days, Southwest Airlines is giving customers another reason to book a flight.
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On Tuesday, the major U.S. carrier offered "50% off base fares for 50 days of fall travel," which will only last for 48 hours. Customers can use the limited time discount to book a flight this coming fall through June 17.
Southwest chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said in April that his airline has seen steady improvement in U.S. leisure-travel sales since mid-February. The sale may be one way to help that momentum continue especially to lure in travelers after the busy summer season winds down.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LUV | SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO. | 27.24 | -0.86 | -3.06% |
Last week the airline also announced it was offering travel to new cities and additional flights for travel throughout the holiday season as the world inches back to pre-pandemic times and airlines try and recover after a year of losses.
Airport terminal (Southwest Airlines)
However, the woes weren't over for Southwest, which suffered two days of technological issues with prompted a slew of cancelations.
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By Tuesday afternoon, the nation’s fourth-largest airline had canceled about 500 flights and delayed nearly 1,300 others, according to tracking service FlightAware. The combination of cancellations and delays affected about half of Southwest’s planned flights for the day.
The Federal Aviation Administration held up all Southwest departures for about 45 minutes while the company worked to fix a computer issue, an agency spokeswoman said.
On Monday night, problems with a third-party weather data provider caused Southwest to delay about 1,500 flights.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES IMPLEMENTS AUTOMATION AMID LABOR SHORTAGE, RECRUITING CHALLENGES
The airline confirmed to FOX Business that the "technology issues from Tuesday have been resolved."
However, the airline is "still experiencing a small number of cancelations and delays" across its network and is still "working to resume normal operations," an airline spokesperson said.
The airline is urging customers to check their flight status online or with an agent before their travel Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.