Alaska Airlines Restores Full Service Following Critical It Failure That Led To Ground Stop And Widespread Flight Delays: New Update You Need To Know

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Alaska Airlines has resumed normal operations aft a awesome IT systems outage prompted a little crushed extremity and resulted successful formation delays systemwide. The breakdown, which began Sunday evening, was caused by a mishap astatine nan airline’s information center, which caused cardinal operational systems to fail. This led to Alaska grounding each mainline Alaska Airlines flights and location Horizon Air flights for respective hours. The hose has since resumed flights but nan disruption led to much than flights being cancelled aliases delayed. The Issue pinch nan matter alert Facility The article reports that #Alaska Airlines has confirmed that nan problem was not owed to a cyber onslaught and alternatively a hardware fault, and nan hose is presently doing its champion to debar it successful future.

While operations person since resumed, nan disruption caused wide formation cancellations and delays. The hose has warned that location whitethorn still beryllium lingering delays arsenic it useful to reposition craft and crews crossed its hubs. Alaska Airlines confirmed that nan outage was owed to a hardware malfunction and not a cyberattack.

IT Outage Leads to Ground Stop

The disruption began connected Sunday, July 20, astir 8:00 PM PST, erstwhile a nonaccomplishment astatine Alaska Airlines’ information halfway caused cardinal operational systems to spell offline. As a result, nan hose imposed a crushed extremity for each flights, including those operated by Horizon Air, which lasted for astir 3 hours.

By 11:00 PM PST, nan crushed extremity was lifted, and operations began to gradually resume. The hose explained that nan outage was caused by an unexpected nonaccomplishment of a hardware constituent from a third-party vendor. Alaska Airlines reassured passengers that nan incident was not a consequence of a cyberattack and that location was nary outer information breach.

Cancellations and Delays Continue

Although nan crushed extremity was lifted and flights began to return to normal, nan effect of nan IT nonaccomplishment continued into Monday, July 21. According to information from FlightAware, 83 Alaska Airlines flights were canceled, and complete 170 others were delayed owed to ongoing betterment efforts. On Sunday, July 20, much than 300 flights were delayed, and 68 were canceled crossed nan airline’s network.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) knowledgeable nan astir delays, pinch complete 160 flights delayed, accounting for almost half of nan full delays astatine nan airdrome that day. Other airports besides knowledgeable important disruptions, including Anchorage International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Portland International Airport, and San Diego International Airport.

At Denver International Airport, passengers knowledgeable further vexation erstwhile they were forced to deplane aft waiting connected nan tarmac for astir 2 hours. Long delays and deficiency of connection added to nan challenges faced by travelers affected by nan incident.

Cybersecurity Concerns Amidst IT Failure

While Alaska Airlines confirmed that nan outage was not caused by a cyberattack, nan incident highlights ongoing cybersecurity concerns successful nan aviation industry. Recently, different airlines person been targeted by cybercriminals, drafting attraction to vulnerabilities successful hose IT systems.

Just past month, Hawaiian Airlines, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group, knowledgeable a cyberattack that compromised parts of its IT infrastructure. The breach was attributed to nan hacker group Scattered Spider, which has been targeting aviation companies crossed North America. Although this breach did not disrupt formation schedules, it raised concerns astir nan information of hose systems.

Similarly, WestJet, a Canadian carrier, besides reported a breach linked to nan aforesaid hacker group. These incidents stress nan increasing risks faced by airlines, peculiarly arsenic nan manufacture becomes an progressively valuable target for cyberattacks.

In December 2024, Japan Airlines suffered a important cyberattack that affected its operations during nan vacation season. The onslaught caused wide delays and forced nan hose to suspend summons income for hours, highlighting nan existent risks of cyber threats successful nan hose industry.

Though Alaska Airlines has assured passengers that its caller IT nonaccomplishment was not caused by a cyberattack, nan bid of cyber incidents affecting nan manufacture underscores nan request for heightened cybersecurity measures crossed nan aviation sector.

Airline’s Recovery Efforts and Passenger Support

As Alaska Airlines useful to retrieve from nan IT failure, it is focused connected assisting passengers affected by nan disruptions. The hose is offering rebooking options for canceled flights and providing updates done its website and customer work channels. Travelers are encouraged to cheque nan position of their flights and scheme for imaginable delays arsenic nan hose continues to activity connected restoring normal operations.

Although nan business has improved, Alaska Airlines is still dealing pinch nan ongoing effects of nan outage, which proceed to impact operations. The hose has committed to keeping passengers informed and providing nan basal support for those whose recreation plans person been impacted.

In summary, nan IT systems meltdown heavy impacted Alaska Airlines’ operations, but nan airline’s speedy solution and betterment proceed to prevention Alaska from further delays. Alaska Airlines has said it was investigating nan problem and moving to hole it truthful it does not hap again.