Topline
Hundreds of Alaska Airlines flights were canceled after a tech systems outage on Thursday night triggered a seven-hour-long ground stop for the carrier’s flights nationwide, in an apparent repeat of a similar outage and groundings the company faced earlier this year.
Dozens of Alaska Airlines were canceled on Thursday night and early Friday morning.
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Key Facts
In a statement on Thursday evening, the airline said it was “experiencing an IT outage affecting operations,” and a “temporary ground stop” has been put in place until the issue is resolved.
The ground stop, which went into effect shortly after 7 p.m. ET, also affected flights operated by Horizon Air, Alaska Air’s regional carrier subsidiary.
Early on Friday morning, the company said its “operations have been restored after a significant IT outage,” and the ground stop was lifted at 2:30 a.m. ET.
“We are working to get our operations back on track as quickly and safely as possible,” the airline’s statement said, while noting that further “flight disruptions are likely as we reposition aircraft and crews throughout our network.”
The airline had earlier told several news outlets that a failure in its primary data center had caused the IT outage.
How Many Alaska Airlines Planes Have Been Impacted?
In its statement, Alaska Airlines said the outage has resulted in more than 229 flight cancellations since Thursday afternoon and this number could rise further. According to FlightAware’s tracker, at least 96 Alaska Airlines and 14 Horizon Air flights have been canceled after midnight ET on Friday. Flights from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, the carrier’s main hub, with 38 outbound flights from the airport being canceled at the time of publishing.
Tangent
Alaska Airlines announced it will postpone its conference call for third-quarter 2025 financial results to ensure its teams are able to focus “supporting our guests and the recovery of our operation,” following the outage. The company’s shares fell 1.35% to $46 in premarket trading early on Friday.
Key Background
This is the second time Alaska Airlines has been forced to ground its fleet due to a tech systems outage. A similar incident occurred in July, lasting around 3 hours. It is unclear whether Thursday night’s outage is linked to the earlier one. Thursday night’s flight cancellations also come at a time when flyers are facing other travel disruptions across the country due to the ongoing federal government shutdown. Absenteeism among Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers is expected to rise on Friday as the staffers are set to miss their first full paycheck.
Further Reading
Alaska Airlines Resumes Operations After All Its Flights Were Grounded By Tech Outage (Forbes)