Alaska Airlines Grounds Flights After IT Outage

News Desk - 21/07/2025

U.S. carrier Alaska Airlines grounded its flights on Sunday due to an IT outage that affected key systems, the company announced. This marks the second time in just over a year that the airline has halted operations system-wide.

In a statement emailed to Reuters, Alaska Airlines revealed the outage occurred around 8 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday (0300 GMT Monday). The airline said, “We requested a temporary, system-wide ground stop for Alaska and Horizon Air flights.”

The Seattle-based airline added there would be residual impacts throughout the evening, though it did not provide further details about the nature of the IT outage.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, the FAA’s status page showed a ground stop was in place for all Alaska Airlines mainline aircraft, as well as a suspension of Horizon Air operations.

Alaska Air Group operates 238 Boeing 737 aircraft
The group also flies 87 Embraer 175 aircraft

This is not the first recent operational disruption for Alaska Airlines. In April 2024, the airline grounded its entire fleet due to a system issue related to aircraft weight and balance calculations. Just months earlier, a door panel on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines detached midair.

In June, Hawaiian Airlines, also owned by Alaska Air Group, reported a cyber incident that disrupted some of its IT systems. Alaska Air Group has yet to disclose the financial impact of that hack.

The latest IT outage comes as cybersecurity threats in the aviation sector continue to draw attention. Tech companies Google and Palo Alto Networks have recently warned about the “Scattered Spider” hacking group targeting aviation.

Canada’s WestJet Airlines also reported a cyber incident in June, while Australia’s Qantas experienced a data breach in July that compromised customer data.

It is not yet clear if the Alaska Airlines outage is linked to an unrelated cybersecurity alert issued by Microsoft on Sunday. The tech company said it had detected “active attacks” on its server software used by businesses and government agencies.