Alaska Airlines had to ground all planes because of an IT outage
The airline resumed operations late Sunday, but residual delays are likely as crews and planes are repositioned.
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Alaska Airlines paused all flights Sunday night after an IT outage forced the company to issue a temporary ground stop across its entire network, including regional carrier Horizon Air.
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The issue began late Sunday night, when the airline experienced a systems failure that disrupted operations. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed late Sunday that Alaska had requested a system-wide ground stop. Flights were grounded for about three hours before operations resumed.
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The airline said the outage would likely cause residual delays into Monday as it worked to reposition aircraft and crews. Travelers were advised to double-check their flight status before heading to the airport.
“We apologize to our guests for this inconvenience. It will take some time to get our overall operations back to normal,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement.
Alaska Airlines is the fifth-largest airline in the U.S. and operates a fleet of 238 Boeing aircraft under its primary brand and 45 aircraft under Horizon Air. The carrier serves more than 120 destinations and flies over 44 million passengers annually.
This marks the second time in just over a year that Alaska has had to ground flights due to IT issues. In April of 2024 the airline suffered an outage after a system upgrade disrupted operations across both mainline and Horizon routes.
The specific cause of Sunday’s outage hasn’t been disclosed.