Alaska Airlines experienced a system-wide IT outage on Thursday, resulting in a ground stop for all flights in the United States and Mexico. The airline assured passengers that the incident was not a cybersecurity event and that the safety of their flights was not compromised.

The IT outage, which affected key systems necessary for operations, prompted Alaska Airlines to ground all their aircraft and implement a ground stop until the issue was resolved. The airline apologized for the inconvenience and advised passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ground stop for Alaska Airlines after the airline submitted a request. This had an impact on airports across the U. S. , including O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The FAA warned passengers to check their flights before traveling.

This was the second IT outage for Alaska Airlines this year, with the previous incident occurring in July due to a hardware failure at a data center. The airline serves over 100 destinations and operates flights under the brands Alaska and Horizon Air. However, Hawaiian Airlines flights were not affected by the IT outage.

According to the airline, the IT outage was caused by a failure at their primary data center at around 3:30 p. m. on Thursday, October 24. They clarified that it was not a cybersecurity event and was not related to any other events.

Alaska Airlines issued a statement apologizing to their passengers for the disruption to their travel plans and assuring them that they were working to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible. However, some passengers took matters into their own hands and decided to offload a flight that had been stuck on the runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas for over two hours.

The airline industry has had a history of computer problems causing flight disruptions, but these are usually temporary. In 2023, the U. K. ‘s air traffic control systems experienced a major failure that affected hundreds of thousands of people flying in and out of the country.

The Mirror US has reached out to the FAA for more information on the IT outage. To stay up to date with the latest news and updates from the Mirror US, sign up for their free newsletter.