Seattle-based Alaska Airlines faced an IT outage on Sunday evening, resulting in a temporary ground stop affecting all flights. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was asked to grant the stop, impacting flights operated by its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air. This incident follows Hawaiian Airlines' recent admission of a hacking disruption.
The outage occurred at approximately 20:00 PST and affected operations across Alaska's hubs in Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport alone, over 160 flights were delayed. A spokesperson stated that "at approximately 8 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, Alaska Airlines experienced an IT outage that’s impacting our operations."
Despite most flights remaining unaffected Sunday evening, further delays were anticipated into Monday. By 23:51 PST, the ground stop was lifted after three hours. However, residual impacts were expected as operations resumed.