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Hawaii News

Hundreds of Southwest flights delayed

Southwest Airlines Co. experienced almost 600 flight delays nationwide Friday, according to tracking service FlightAware, after a computer problem caused the carrier to temporarily park its fleet.

The airline asked the Federal Aviation Administration to declare a “brief” ground stop after a glitch with software that automatically downloads flight plans to the agency, an FAA spokesman said in a statement. The delays represent about 15 percent of Southwest’s daily schedule, according to FlightAware.

The systems problem, which the Dallas-based airline said was resolved by about 5:30 a.m. local time, follows more than a week of increased flight delays caused by having more planes than normal out of service for mechanical problems. Southwest declared an “operational emergency” Feb. 15, three days after the problem started, advising mechanics to show up to work as scheduled or risk losing their jobs.

Southwest said Friday’s disruption lasted about 50 minutes, and resulting delays averaged 40 minutes.

ON THE MOVE

>> Sharon Suzuki has been named the new president of Maui County as well as Hawaii Island Utilities. Her responsibilities include overseeing administration of the two companies, which serve 157,000 customers on Molokai, Hawaii island, Maui and Lanai. Suzuki has more than 25 years’ experience with Maui Electric and Hawaiian Electric, including serving as president of Maui Electric since 2012.

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