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Alaska Airlines faced major disruptions after a massive technology outage grounded flights across all airports, stranding thousands of passengers and forcing the cancellation of more than 229 flights. The airline confirmed early Friday that operations had been restored but warned that residual delays and cancellations would persist as it worked to stabilize its systems.
The grounding, which also affected subsidiary Horizon Air, prompted a temporary nationwide stop order issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. By the time the halt was lifted at 11:30 p.m. local time, Alaska Airlines had already canceled over 360 flights. The carrier clarified on social media that the issue stemmed from a system failure and was not the result of a cyberattack.
Passengers flooded online platforms with complaints about malfunctioning booking systems and app errors. The airline's IT team responded, assuring travelers that they were "working to get this resolved as soon as possible." Shares of Alaska Airlines dropped by 5.4% in early trading following the incident.
This outage couldn't have come at a worse time, with the airline already struggling from high fuel costs and operational challenges. The disruption forced Alaska to postpone its earnings call, originally scheduled for October 24.
It isn't the first time Alaska Airlines has faced such technical chaos. A similar outage in July grounded flights for three hours and cost the company roughly 10 cents per share in quarterly profit. As Alaska works to get its operations back on track, industry experts warn that repeated IT failures could undermine public trust in an airline once lauded for reliability.
