Alaska Airlines IT Outage Disrupts Hundreds of Flights: What to Know

Hundreds of Alaska Airlines flights and thousands of passengers’ travel plans were disrupted over the weekend and well into Monday following a “significant IT outage” that resulted in the grounding of planes for about three hours. The airline has since resumed flights, but the company said in a statement late Monday that the effects of the grounding could result in possible additional disruptions as well as delays. Travelers have reported waiting for hours in ticketing queues and sleeping in airports because of the outage. “We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted. We’re working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can,” the airline said in its statement. Here’s what to know. What happened? Flights were grounded at 8 p.m. PT on July 20 after the outage. Alaska Airlines said a “critical piece of multi-redundant hardware,” which was manufactured by a third party, suddenly failed. The unexpected failure affected the airlines’ systems, requiring the ground stop. The stop was lifted at 11 p.m. PT, Sunday. The Seattle-based airline assured that the IT outage is not a cybersecurity event and is “not related to any other current events”—including the recent worldwide Microsoft hack. It also said the safety of its flights remain unaffected.  Since Sunday, the airline cancelled more than 200 flights, with 116 cancellations on Monday—affecting some 15,600 passengers.   What can you do if you’re an affected passenger? The airline advised passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Alaska Airlines said it offers a “flexible travel policy” for those who wish to change or cancel their flights. According to its website, Alaska Airlines will provide hotel accommodations, arrange ground transport, and distribute meal vouchers for those affected by the outage. It may also help arrange flights for another air carrier to the passenger’s destination. These IT outage-related measures apply only to tickets purchased on or before July 20, with original travel dates between the 20th and the 23rd. New travel dates are expected to be from Monday, July 21, until July 28. How common are airline IT outages? Tech-related flight disruptions are common, though they are usually resolved in hours. Many airlines have long relied on aging computer systems, and the aviation industry has been criticized for failing to modernize swiftly. Last year, a massive Microsoft IT outage caused the grounding of flights worldwide. In January 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all departing flights nationwide for 90 minutes because of a computer issue that prevented airports from updating safety notices that help warn pilots of potential flight hazards. The FAA found no evidence of a cyberattack, instead tracing the issue to a corrupt file. And in December 2022, Southwest Airlines cancelled thousands of its flights over more than two weeks, stranding more than 2 million travelers at the height of the holiday season. The airline’s operations were stymied by a winter storm, but the issue snowballed after the storm overwhelmed its crew-rescheduling system.