Alaska Airlines Grounds All Flights for Hours After System-Wide IT Failure

Alaska Airlines temporarily grounded all its flights Sunday night due to a major IT outage that affected the entire system, the company confirmed.

The tech failure began around 8 p.m. Pacific Time and led to a full ground stop for both Alaska Airlines and its regional carrier Horizon Air. Operations resumed roughly three hours later, at 11 p.m., though the airline warned passengers to expect delays and disruptions as crews and aircraft are repositioned.

“As we reposition our aircraft and crews, there will most likely be residual impacts to our flights. It will take some time to get our overall operations back to normal,” the post said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also confirmed the system-wide halt on its website.

This isn’t the first time Alaska Airlines has run into tech issues. Last September, the carrier briefly grounded flights in Seattle due to a similar system problem. That incident, too, was resolved within a few hours.

The airline is still under public scrutiny after a dramatic mid-air incident in January 2024, when a door plug panel flew off an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff. A massive hole opened up in the cabin, sucking out personal items, but no passengers were seriously hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board later credited the crew’s swift action for preventing further harm.

With input from The AP News