Southwest Airlines plans to offer red-eye flights, starting from Las Vegas and Hawaii

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines is preparing to join the ranks of other carriers that offer overnight flights.

The all-economy airline announced Wednesday it's planning to start offering red-eye flights for the first time.

The flights are expected to start out of Las Vegas and Hawaii within two years.

Southwest said it hopes to offer about 50 red-eye flights a day.

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Such flights are common in the industry, but Southwest didn't have a booking system that could handle them until 2017.

Southwest management said the two-year window will allow the airline to work-out all the technical and labor details.

The new flights could help Southwest pick up its growth after it had to cut future forecasts due to problems with the Boeing 737 Max airplane.