Alaska Airlines Outage Flights: Hundreds of Cancellations After Major IT Failure

Alaska Airlines faced a major operational meltdown this week as an IT outage caused the airline to cancel more than 360 flights and delay hundreds more. The company confirmed that the disruption began on Thursday afternoon and was not related to any cybersecurity incident.

The airline said the outage led to a systemwide ground stop affecting both Alaska Airlines and its regional carrier Horizon Air. Although the ground stop was lifted late Thursday night, the effects have continued into Friday as crews and planes were left out of position.

Alaska Airlines Outage Flights: What Happened and How Passengers Were Impacted

According to the company, the issue began at around 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday after a failure occurred at the airline’s primary data center. The outage forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to temporarily halt Alaska and Horizon flights across the network. Operations only resumed hours later, at approximately 11:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

Even after systems came back online, the airline continued to cancel and delay flights on Friday. Flight-tracking data showed over 360 cancellations and nearly 500 delays in less than 24 hours. Many passengers took to social media to report long lines at customer service desks, booking errors online, and confusion about rebooking options.

Alaska Airlines emphasized that this was not a cyberattack and was unrelated to any previous events. The airline attributed the problem to a hardware failure at its main data center and said its teams were working “around the clock” to restore full operations. Customers whose travel plans were disrupted were offered full refunds if they chose not to rebook.

In a public statement, Alaska Airlines noted that “additional flight disruptions are likely as we reposition aircraft and crews throughout our network.” The company apologized for the inconvenience and thanked passengers for their patience as recovery efforts continued.

Broader Implications for Airline Operations

This marks the second time in 2025 that Alaska Airlines has faced a large-scale system failure. In July, the airline was forced to ground over 200 flights due to a separate IT outage, also linked to a technical failure in its data systems. The recurrence of such issues has raised concerns about the reliability of airline IT infrastructure across the industry.

Experts say modern airlines are heavily dependent on complex data networks to manage everything from crew scheduling to weight distribution and passenger check-in systems. When these systems fail, even briefly, it can cause ripple effects that take days to resolve. The Alaska incident once again highlights how fragile air travel logistics can be when technology falters.

Analysts expect this latest event to prompt further reviews of Alaska Airlines’ disaster recovery and backup protocols. Frequent flyers have also expressed frustration online, calling for more transparency and faster customer communication when technical issues occur. Regulators may also look into whether airlines are maintaining adequate redundancy for mission-critical systems.

The Alaska Airlines outage flights disruption is a reminder that even in 2025, a single point of failure in an airline’s IT system can paralyze operations nationwide. As the company works to restore normal service, travelers are urged to monitor flight status updates closely and prepare for continued delays through the weekend.

FYI (keeping you in the loop)-

Q1: What caused the Alaska Airlines outage flights problem?

The outage was triggered by a failure at the airline’s primary data center. Alaska Airlines confirmed it was not caused by a cybersecurity breach.

Q2: How many flights were cancelled or delayed?

More than 360 flights were cancelled and nearly 500 others delayed between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Q3: Did Alaska Airlines confirm if this was related to a hack?

No. The airline clearly stated that this was not a cybersecurity issue and was instead caused by a technical failure in its systems.

Q4: What options do affected passengers have?

Passengers can either rebook their flights or request a full refund if they choose not to travel due to the outage.

Q5: Has this happened before?

Yes. A similar outage in July 2025 grounded over 200 flights, also due to a technical failure in Alaska Airlines’ systems.