Alaska Airlines halts all its flights — here's what caused the disruption

Alaska Airlines announced Thursday that it has temporarily grounded its flights due to an information technology outage.

The airline posted the update on the social media platform X, saying it had imposed a “temporary ground stop.”

Alaska Airlines advised passengers scheduled to travel on the night of 24 October to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

“Alaska Airlines is experiencing an IT outage affecting operations. A temporary ground stop is in place. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you're scheduled to fly tonight, please check your flight status before heading to the airport,” the post read.

Hawaiian Airlines unaffected

The grounding has impacted operations for both Alaska Air and its regional partner, Horizon Air flights.

However, Hawaiian Airlines, acquired by Alaska Air Group last year, reported that its flights are operating as scheduled despite the disruption affecting the parent company's network, AP reported.

This is not the first time technology disruption has impacted the carrier's operations. In July, Alaska Airlines grounded all of its flights for approximately three hours due to the failure of a critical piece of hardware at a data centre.

Technical disruption across other airlines

The airline industry has seen recurring IT-related disruptions, though most are temporary.

Just a few days ago, on 19 October, Air India scheduled an additional flight from Milan to Delhi to bring back stranded passengers after a technical issue had cancelled their original flight.

Around 256 passengers who were returning home for Diwali had been stuck in Milan since 17 October, before boarding the special flight.

Similarly, in August this year, United Airlines also faced major disruptions in its operations after a technology issue forced a temporary ground stop at multiple US airports and caused widespread delays across its network.

The glitch led the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue ground stops for United flights at several major hubs, including Newark, Denver, Houston, and Chicago.