A power outage in Minneapolis on Tuesday resulted in thousands of passengers across the country, including AirTran Airways customers, being checked into their flights manually by airline staff.
Around 5:30 p.m. Eastern time, a temporary power outage shut down the storage system of reservation technology company Navitaire, based in Minneapolis. The system had to reboot after power was restored.
The system was back online at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The company provides data storage such as flight reservations and itineraries for almost 60 airlines, including Porter and Spirit airlines, according to CNN.
Airline staffs had to manually check passengers in at airports across the country, including Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It’s a tedious process that caused long lines and frustrated customers.
“It’s definitely handicapped us,” said Chris Mainz, a spokesman for Southwest Airlines, AirTran’s parent company.