US airline Southwest grounds flights over technical glitch

A Southwest Airlines ground crew directs a plane out of the terminal. The company suffered flight delays due to technical issues (Richard Vogel/AP/PA)

Southwest Airlines planes were briefly grounded across the US on Tuesday for what the carrier called an intermittent technology issue, leading to more than 2,200 delayed flights just four months after the airline suffered a much bigger meltdown over the Christmas travel rush.

The hold on departures was lifted by mid-morning Eastern time, according to Southwest and the Federal Aviation Administration, but not before traffic at airports from Denver to New York City had backed up.