Alaska Airlines Resumes Flight Operations After Major Data Center Outage Disrupts Service

Alaska Airlines has resumed operations after a vital piece of hardware failed, forcing the carrier to stop all of its flights for almost three hours, but the consequences will last until Monday, the company said.

The airline announced a system-wide ground halt for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air aircraft at 8 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday.  The stop was lifted at 11 p.m., according to a social media statement from the Seattle-based corporation.  More than 150 flights have been canceled since Sunday evening, including 64 on Monday. 

According to the carrier, "a critical piece of multi-redundant hardware at our data centers, manufactured by a third-party, experienced an unexpected failure."  That damaged several of the airline's important systems, but no hacking was involved, and the airline stated that the problem was unrelated to any other incidents, such as the weekend attack on Microsoft's servers or the previous cybersecurity disaster at its Hawaiian Airlines subsidiary in June.

"We appreciate our guests' patience while their travel arrangements have been disturbed.  "We're working to get them to their destinations as soon as possible," the airline said in a statement. 

The airline also stated that it is working with its vendor to replace the hardware in the data center.

According to the FlightAware website, Alaska Airlines cancelled more flights than any other airline on Monday.  Many of the cancellations occurred at the airline's main base in Seattle, but it also canceled flights at airports throughout the country.

The Federal Aviation Administration's website verified a ground stop for all Alaska Airlines mainline and Horizon flights, referring to an Alaska Airlines subsidiary.  However, the FAA referred all questions to the airline on Monday. 

The National Transportation Board this month congratulated the crew of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 for the passengers' survival when a door plug panel flew off the plane shortly after takeoff on Jan. 5, 2024, leaving a hole that sucked objects out of the cabin.

Alaska Airlines stated in September that it temporarily halted flights in Seattle due to "significant disruptions" caused by an undisclosed technology issue, which was remedied within hours.