Alaska Airlines restores operations after system-wide IT outage grounds flights nationwide

Alaska Airlines resumed operations early Monday after a significant IT outage forced the temporary grounding of all its flights, along with those of its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air. The disruption began late Sunday evening, pausing all departures for approximately three hours and stranding passengers across the country.

The company reported the system-wide ground stop began around 8 p.m. Pacific Time and was lifted by 11 p.m. Pacific, following restoration of its IT systems. The airline attributed the grounding to an unspecified technology failure, stating, “We experienced an IT outage that’s impacting our operations.” Though flight activity has resumed, Alaska Airlines warned of continued delays as it works to reposition aircraft and crews.

“This will take some time to get our overall operations back to normal,” the airline said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the ground stop, which impacted all Alaska and Horizon Air flights and applied to all destinations served by the Seattle-based carrier. The FAA did not disclose the reason for the grounding, and Alaska Airlines has yet to provide further technical details.

While the root cause of the outage remains unconfirmed, cybersecurity experts have raised the possibility of malicious interference. The Scattered Spider hacking group, known for recent cyberattacks on major airlines including Qantas, Air Serbia and WestJet, is suspected in several recent aviation sector breaches. Microsoft also reported active cyberattacks on its server software on July 20, though there is no official link between that incident and Alaska’s outage.

This is not the first major disruption for the airline. In April 2024, Alaska Airlines grounded its entire fleet due to a malfunction in its weight and balance calculation system. More recently, in June 2025, its subsidiary Hawaiian Airlines disclosed it had been affected by a cybersecurity incident impacting some of its IT systems.

Alaska Airlines, operated under the Alaska Air Group, has a fleet of 238 Boeing 737s and 87 Embraer 175 aircraft. The group acquired Hawaiian Airlines in late 2024, expanding its domestic and Pacific operations.