Alaska Airlines Restarts Flights After IT Outage
Alaska Airlines Grounded Over IT Outage
Initial Outage and Ground Stop
Alaska Airlines announced a temporary grounding of its fleet on Monday after an IT outage disrupted operations. The carrier apologized for the inconvenience and urged passengers to verify flight status before heading to the airport, noting that “overall operations will take some time to return to normal.”
Grounding Lifted and Residual Impact
The Ground Stop was lifted, but the FAA status page still listed affected destinations. Alaska Airlines stated, “As we reposition our aircraft and crews, there will most likely be residual impacts to our flights.”
Passenger Reactions
- Caleb Heimlich: “This is brutal. We’ve been sitting at the airport for two hours.”
- Another user: “It’s 10:20 pm, people are tired, hungry, etc. This is not okay.”
Past Outage and Security Context
Last year, Alaska Airlines experienced a similar IT outage that caused delayed flights and app/website access issues. Yesterday, Microsoft warned of active attacks targeting server software. Alaska Airlines has not clarified whether the current outage is linked to that Microsoft warning.
Boeing 737‑9 Incident and FAA Grounding
In January, a door plug blew out on a newly delivered Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight between Portland and Ontario, California. The rapid decompression survived 171 passengers and six crew, but the FAA subsequently grounded many Boeing 737‑9 aircraft operated by U.S. airlines. Investigators linked Boeing’s failure to adequately train manufacturing staff to the near‑catastrophic blowout.
Fleet Overview
Alaska Air Group operates a fleet of 325 aircraft, comprising 238 Boeing 737s and 87 Embraer 175s.
