Southwest says website recovering from slowdown during sale

DALLAS (AP) - Southwest says customers are able to get back on the airline website after a slowdown caused by heavy traffic during a fare sale.

Southwest Airlines Co.'s website and mobile app slowed to a crawl beginning Wednesday, the day after the airline launched a three-day fall-travel sale.

A few customers tweeted Friday about problems with online check-in and long hold times on Southwest's toll-free number.

However, by Friday afternoon, Southwest had removed an alert about technical problems from its home page "because we're seeing there's less of an issue with the website," said spokeswoman Thais Conway Hanson. She said customers were getting on the site and fewer were calling the 800 number.

Southwest extended the sale until midnight Friday night because of the technical problems. Other airlines matched the sale prices.