Alaska Airlines has restored flight operations after a widespread technology outage temporarily grounded its entire fleet and led to over 229 flight cancellations across multiple airports, according to Reuters.
In a statement released early Friday, the airline confirmed that systems were back online and operations had resumed. “We are working to get our operations back on track as quickly and safely as possible,” Alaska Airlines said, cautioning passengers to expect further disruptions as normal schedules are restored.
The airline had requested a temporary ground stop on Thursday evening, which also affected its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the halt around 11:30 p.m. local time on Friday. Alaska Airlines has not yet revealed the cause of the outage.
During the disruption, customers reported booking errors on the airline’s website and app. Addressing these issues on social media, the airline said, “Unfortunately, we are experiencing an error on our system, but our IT team is working to get this resolved as soon as possible.”
Financial Impact
Alaska Air Group stated that it has not yet assessed the financial implications of the outage on its fourth-quarter performance. Shares of the company fell nearly 3% in premarket trading following the incident.
In its latest financial update, the Group reported third-quarter revenue of $3.77 billion, marking a 23% increase year over year. The company also postponed its scheduled October 24 earnings call to focus on assisting affected customers and stabilizing operations.
This marks the second major system failure in recent months—Alaska Airlines experienced a similar IT outage in July that forced a temporary three-hour suspension of flights.