Alaska Airlines Restores Flights After Major IT Outage Grounds Over 400 Flights Nationwide

Alaska Airlines announced on Friday that it has fully restored operations following a significant technology outage that grounded flights across the United States and led to the cancellation of more than 400 flights, affecting over 49,000 passengers. The airline, part of Alaska Air Group, stated that it is taking immediate steps to enhance its IT infrastructure after a failure at its primary data center caused the nationwide disruption. While the company has not yet determined the financial impact on its fourth-quarter results, shares of Alaska Airlines dropped 6% in heavy trading on Friday.

“This level of performance is not acceptable,” the airline said, emphasizing its commitment to getting passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible. Alaska Airlines clarified that the outage was not caused by a cyberattack but stemmed from a system failure, which prompted the company to request a temporary ground stop from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday evening. The halt, which also impacted subsidiary Horizon Air, was lifted around 11:30 p.m. PDT (6:30 a.m. GMT Friday).

The airline previously faced a similar incident in July when an IT outage grounded flights for about three hours, reducing its third-quarter profit per share by approximately 10 cents. Following that event, Alaska Airlines implemented improvements to strengthen its systems but admitted that “this failure underscores the work that remains to be done to ensure system stability.” The company is now bringing in external technology experts to conduct a full assessment of its IT infrastructure and improve resilience against future disruptions.

In addition to operational challenges, Alaska Airlines recently forecasted a fourth-quarter profit below analysts’ expectations due to rising fuel costs and system issues. The company also postponed its October 24 earnings call as it continues to assess the full extent of the outage’s impact.