Alaska Airlines has issued a warning regarding potential further flight disruptions on Monday following an unexpected failure of essential hardware at its data centers on Sunday evening. This incident forced the airline to halt all operations for approximately three hours, significantly impacting travel plans for many passengers.
As of 10:45 a.m. ET on Monday, the Seattle-based airline had canceled 66 flights, accounting for about 7% of its scheduled operations. In addition, 110 flights, or 12%, were reported as delayed, according to data from FlightAware. This situation has not only affected Alaska Airlines but also its subsidiary, Horizon Air, which has been grappling with similar flight disruptions.
Since the hardware failure occurred on Sunday evening, the airline has experienced over 150 flight cancellations. The outage prompted Alaska Airlines to implement a system-wide ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon Air flights around 8 p.m. PT on Sunday. Operations resumed at approximately 11 p.m. PT, but the airline cautioned that additional flight disruptions are likely as they work to reposition aircraft and crews throughout their network.
Alaska Airlines clarified that the recent IT outage is not connected to any ongoing current events and reassured customers that it is not a cybersecurity incident. The failure was attributed to a critical piece of hardware at its data centers, which was manufactured by a third party. This unexpected malfunction impacted several key systems, compelling the airline to enact a ground stop to maintain aircraft in their current positions.
The airline is currently collaborating with its vendor to replace the faulty hardware at the data center. However, the specific location of the data center was not disclosed. Alaska Airlines is committed to restoring normal operations as quickly as possible and appreciates the understanding and patience of its customers during this challenging time.
