Alaska Airlines Grounds All Flights After Major IT Outage

Alaska Airlines temporarily grounded all its flights across US airports after a major technology outage disrupted its operations. The move also affected its regional carrier, Horizon Air, according to an advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The airline had requested a ground stop lasting one hour and ten minutes, which ended at 0000 GMT.

The airline confirmed that an unspecified IT failure was behind the sudden halt in operations. "Alaska Airlines is experiencing an IT outage affecting operations. A temporary ground stop is in place. We apologise for the inconvenience," the company stated on social media, urging passengers to verify flight statuses before heading to airports.

IT Glitch Causes Nationwide Disruption

Responding to travellers online, Alaska Airlines acknowledged ongoing system errors that were impacting both its website and mobile app. "Unfortunately, we are experiencing an error on our system, but our IT team is working to get this resolved as soon as possible," the airline said in response to a customer query on X (formerly Twitter).

The outage caused significant delays, with ABC15 Arizona reporting at least 71 Alaska Airlines flights delayed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport alone.

Recurring Technical Issues

This is not the first time Alaska Airlines has faced such a problem. In July, the carrier was forced to ground flights for nearly three hours due to a similar IT malfunction. At that time, operations resumed after a system-wide disruption that affected both Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, though no detailed cause was provided.