Alaska Airlines Experiences IT Outage, Disrupting Operations And Delaying Flights

Alaska Airlines announced that it experienced an IT outage Sunday night, significantly disrupting its operations and causing flight delays.

On Monday, the airline reported it had to issue a ground stop for arrivals in Seattle, which lasted for about two hours, according to Reuters. The issue has now been resolved, but the airline still expects some post-outage impact on its operations.

In a statement on its homepage, the airline said, "If you are traveling today, please check your flight status before leaving for the airport. If your schedule allows, please change or cancel your flight. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working quickly to resolve the issue."

On Sunday night, several users had earlier reported facing issues in accessing the airline app and the website. Following this, the airline confirmed the outage on its official X account but denied speculation that its system was hacked.

"This was not a cyber attack or any kind of unauthorised activity. It was a certificate issue that impacted multiple systems," it said.

The Alaska Airlines outage follows an incident in April, when the airline had to halt all its flights due to problems during an upgrade to the system responsible for calculating the weight and balance of its planes.

Just last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) gave a green signal to Alaska Airlines' $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines. This came after the carriers agreed to certain conditions of the regulator, such as preserving services on key Hawaiian routes and protecting the value of their reward systems.

"... We have secured binding protections that maintain critical flight services for communities, ensure smaller airlines can access the Honolulu hub airport, lower costs for families and service members, and preserve the value of rewards miles against devaluation," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

Both airlines agreed to safeguard the value of frequent flyer rewards, ensure competitive access at Honolulu airport, and offer travel credits or loyalty points for issues caused by the airline, the DOT said.

Additionally, the airlines must continue offering their services on key Hawaiian routes to the mainland U.S., as well as to inter-island areas. They also need to maintain current services for cargo and passenger routes.

The carriers also need to make sure that the miles earned in the Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles do not expire and can be transferred at a 1-to-1 ratio.

In July, a global outage hit a wide range of sectors around the world, including airport operations and flights, resulting in significant delays and cancellations.