SAN FRANCISCO: Alaska Airlines resumed operations on Thursday following a technology outage that suspended all of its flights.
This incident occurred three months after a similar technical problem affected the airline.
Alaska Airlines announced on X that it was experiencing an IT outage impacting its operations.
The Seattle-based carrier implemented a temporary ground stop during the disruption.
The company later confirmed it was actively restoring its flight operations.
An advisory from the US Federal Aviation Administration issued early Friday showed some flights had resumed.
All departures to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport remained grounded according to the FAA notice.
The outage began around 3:30 pm local time on Thursday.
Alaska Airlines confirmed the incident was not a cybersecurity event.
The fifth-largest US carrier stated the issue was unrelated to any other events.
The problem originated with a failure at the airline’s primary data center.
Alaska Airlines emphasized that flight safety was never compromised during the outage.
The ground stop also affected its subsidiary Horizon Air according to both Alaska Airlines and the FAA.
Hawaiian Airlines operations were not impacted by the technical issue.
Passengers complained about insufficient information three hours after the initial announcement.
One X user posted a picture showing a jam-packed waiting area at Seattle-Tacoma airport.
The airline experienced a comparable outage on July 20 that lasted approximately three hours.
Alaska Airlines attributed the July problem to critical hardware failure at its data centers.
The carrier also suffered an IT outage last year that caused flight disruptions and delays.
In January 2024, a door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on a Boeing 737 Max 9.
All 171 passengers and six crew members survived the rapid decompression incident.
The FAA temporarily grounded many Boeing 737-9 aircraft operated by US airlines following that event. – AFP
