Alaska Airlines has resumed operations after a technology-related glitch forced the carrier to ground all flights for about three hours late Sunday night.
The Washington-based airline said it experienced an “IT outage that resulted in a temporary, system-wide ground stop for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights” around 8 p.m. Pacific time. The stop was lifted at 11 p.m.
“As we reposition our aircraft and crews, there will most likely be residual impacts to our flights,” Alaska said. “It will take some time to get our overall operations back to normal. We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage guests to check the status of your flight before leaving for the airport.”
Horizon Air is a regional airline owned by Alaska Air Group, which also owns Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines.
Alaska did not say what caused the outage.
According to CNN, thousands of people were left temporarily stranded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as the airline worked to resolve the issue.
“As soon as we landed, we moved to the middle traffic lane, and they let us know there was a malfunction in the computer system,” a passenger who landed at Seattle from Nashville, Tennessee, told the network. He said he and the other passengers on his flight were allowed off the airplane after waiting for more than three hours.
Alaska was forced to ground its fleet over a year ago, in April 2024, due to a problem with the system that calculates the weight and balance of its aircraft. Months later, in September, it paused flights out of Seattle due to an unspecified technology problem that was fixed within hours.
