Baggage system breakdown delays flights at JFK

— -- American Airlines said a glitch in the software that operates the baggage handling system at New York John F. Kennedy are leading to delays at the airport Wednesday.

About 30 flights — of the 69 scheduled to depart from the airport Wednesday — have been delayed as of mid-afternoon by an hour to 90 minutes. The airline's employees are sorting bags by hand and delivering them to the gates.

The airline is informing passengers that they can choose to fly without their bags and that it will deliver the delayed luggage "once the issue is resolved."

"We have brought in internal engineers and technicians from the system developer to conduct diagnostics," the Fort Worth-based carrier said in a statement. "We regret the inconvenience and we appreciate our customers' patience as we work through this issue. Though it is not our normal policy, we will be waiving first and second checked bag fees today."

Nearly all departures for Wednesday have been delayed so far, with the exception of "a few flights" that left before the problem was detected early in the morning, says spokesman Tim Wagner.

Wagner says the conveyor belt at its Terminal 8 is still moving and agents can accept bags from passengers. But the software that reads luggage tags and sends them to the right gates has malfunctioned. Only about 10% to 20% of the checked luggage are getting on board. Delays will likely continue until the problem is fixed, he says. "There has been no resolution."

American Eagle, a regional airline unit of American Airlines' corporate parent AMR Corp., is also affected by the glitch. Of its 31 flights scheduled for Wednesday, five have been delayed so far.