Alaska Airlines (ALK, Financial) has resumed operations after a temporary suspension of all flights due to an IT system failure. The outage, lasting approximately three hours, marked the airline's second complete halt in over a year. The Seattle-based carrier implemented a system-wide grounding of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights, which was lifted later.
The airline noted that flight schedules might still face disruptions as they work to reposition aircraft and crew, with the full restoration of operations expected to take some time. The specific nature of the IT issue remains undisclosed. Previously, in April 2024, Alaska Airlines grounded flights due to problems with its aircraft load balance calculation system.
Currently, Alaska Airlines Group operates 238 Boeing 737s and 87 Embraer 175 aircraft. In June, its subsidiary, Hawaiian Airlines, reported IT disruptions due to a cyberattack. The group is assessing the financial impact of the recent incident.
This outage coincides with warnings from tech companies Google and Palo Alto Networks about potential cyber threats to the aviation sector. Other airlines, such as Canada's WestJet and Australia's Qantas, have faced cyber incidents recently, although these did not disrupt flights. Alaska Airlines has not commented on any potential connection between its IT issues and these threats.
