Alaska Airlines Recovers After Sunday Night IT Outage Grounded Flights
by Daniel McCarthy
Photo: Paul Bickford / Shutterstock.com
Alaska Airlines was recovering and getting back on track Monday morning after an IT outage Sunday night grounded all of its flights for about three hours.
All Alaska and Horizon Air flights were under a ground stop starting around 11 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. PDT at Alaska’s Seattle hub) on Sunday. Alaska said it issued the system-wide ground stop because of “an IT outage that’s impacting our operations.”
About 35%, or more than 300 flights, of Alaska’s entire Sunday schedule were delayed, and another 7% were canceled, according to FlightAware. Alaska’s Monday schedule was more on track, but was still experiencing some lingering effects from Sunday’s fallout. As of 9 a.m. EDT, about 60 flights were canceled — more than any other U.S. carrier — and another 70 were delayed.
Alaska is encouraging all travelers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
The incident occurred about 15 months after a similar event when Alaska was forced to issue a ground stop, also due to a tech issue. That time, it was because of errors using its system to weigh and balance flights.
