Why were all Alaska Flights grounded and cancelled? Reasons explained

Alaska Airlines temporarily grounded all flights on Thursday night due to a major information technology outage that disrupted its operations across the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that the airline requested a ground stop while technical experts attempted to resolve the issue. Alaska Airlines posted on X about the problem, saying,

“Alaska Airlines is experiencing an IT outage affecting operations. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you’re scheduled to fly tonight, please check your flight status before heading to the airport."

Later, the airline stated that it was "actively restoring our operations," but didn't immediately specify the cause of the trouble.

Passengers face long delays as Alaska Airlines works to restore systems

The outage led to massive delays and cancellations, with passengers complaining that they had been waiting a long time and all gates were congested in most airports. One of the passengers in Austin, Texas, reported that the terminals were overcrowded and that some passengers had to exit their planes after waiting for an extended period.

“Some passengers have been allowed to leave the plane since it’s been over an hour,” passenger Mike Cully told CNN.

“Crews here still with no update, only to say that nothing has been officially canceled and they’re still counting on system to come back up,” Cully said on X.

The FAA lifted the ground stop after a few hours, when the airline began to repair its systems. Alaska Airlines has dealt with similar tech issues before, including outages in April and July 2024, following system updates.

Alaska Airlines is the fifth-largest airline in the United States, carrying approximately 44 million passengers per year and serving over 120 destinations across five countries. Horizon Air, Alaska Airlines' regional airline, also experienced issues related to the outage. The airline apologized for the inconvenience and is working to analyze the incident so it can prevent it from happening in the future.