Alaska Airlines Grounds Flights in Seattle After Significant IT Outage

Alaska Airlines had declared on X that it was "experiencing a significant IT outage". While brief on Sunday evening, this outage was said to have affected hundreds of flights arriving at Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) International Airport.

Errors In The Emerald City

Alaska Airlines underwent technical difficulties on Sunday evening, which prevented the airline from completing flights successfully to Seattle, Washington. As a result, flights en route to Seattle had to be grounded, keeping places ready for takeoff on the runway for at least an hour.

According to FlightAware, a total of 248 Alaska Airlines flights were delayed on Sunday, with five more being canceled. Three flights arriving to Seattle were canceled and 149 flights were delayed.

Sea-Tac is Alaska Airlines' largest hub which serves over 50 million passengers per year. Sunday's outage has reportedly affected 21% of the airport's total flights and 30% of the airline's total flights that day.

Other passengers claimed that Alaska Airlines flights to Portland, Oregon were also affected, with planes being "stuck on the tarmac" and not being approved for takeoff.

Alaska Airlines stated to the press at 10:00 p.m. PT:

“Earlier this evening we experienced an IT issue that caused significant disruption to our operation — including delayed flights. We also requested a ground stop at SEA so we could clear the aircraft congestion on the ground. The issue has been resolved, but we expect residual impacts on our operation. We sincerely apologize to our guests who are impacted and are working to get all our guests to their destinations.”

The airline identified the issue as a "certificate issue that impacted multiple systems". Unlike the cyberattack that has affected the airport since last month, there doesn't appear to be any signs of malicious behavior from hackers this time around.

A History Of Alaska Airlines Tech Issues

The last time Alaska Airlines had a tech-related outage was in the past April, when the airline had to ground flights due to an issue that affected how its systems "calculate weight and balance" This issue occurred when an upgrade was being made to systems, according to the airline.

A network outage caused significant delays for the airline back in October 2012. 

Back when Alaska Airlines relied on Sprint for internet connectivity, a fiber optic cable was cut, which prevented travelers from checking in and ordering tickets.

In March 2011, an overnight computer outage occurred, in which a "central computer system" that curated flights was shut down and caused flights to be delayed by over two hours or more.

The problems have since been solved at Alaska Airlines, but the airline still has a message: 

"Flight delays: If you are traveling today, please check your flight status before leaving for the airport. If your schedule allows, please change or cancel your flight. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working quickly to resolve the issue.”