Alaska Airlines resumes operations after IT outage caused ground stop
Alaska Airlines says it has resumed operations after an IT outage forced the airline to issue a temporary, system-wide ground stop.
"Alaska Airlines has resolved its earlier IT outage and has resumed operations. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and encourage guests to check your flight status before heading to the airport," the airline posted on X at 2:39 a.m. ET on Monday, July 21.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration's website, the request to ground all Alaska Airlines mainline flights was made around 10:52 p.m. ET.
"We're working to get our operations back on track today at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air after a significant IT outage Sunday night resulted in a system-wide ground stop of flights, which was lifted at 11 p.m. Pacific," Alaska Airlines said in an emailed statement to Paste BN Monday morning.
The airline said that a "critical piece of multi-redundant hardware" at its data centers, manufactured by a third party, experienced an "unexpected failure."
"When that happened, it impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations, necessitating the implementation of a ground stop to keep aircraft in position. The safety of our flights was never compromised," the airline said in the statement.
IT outage led to flight cancellations
Since Sunday night, the airline has had more than 150 flight cancellations, including 64 on Monday, according to the statement. Alaska Airlines says additional flight disruptions are "likely" as the company repositions aircraft and crews throughout its network.
"We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans had been disrupted. We're working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can," the airline said, encouraging flyers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
What is a ground stop?
According to the FAA, a ground stop is a "process that requires aircraft that meet a specific criteria to remain on the ground."
The FAA says the criteria may be airport specific, airspace specific or equipment specific.
This story has been updated with new information.
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at Paste BN. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.