Alaska Airlines forced to ground flights Monday due to IT issues

Alaska Airlines grounded flights leaving Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac Airport) for about 40 minutes late Monday morning due to computer snags, the company said in a statement.

“This morning we experienced an IT issue that resulted in a significant disruption to our operation including delayed flights,” the short statement from the airline emailed to KIRO Newsradio reads.

Alaska Air added that it requested a brief ground stop at Sea-Tac Airport so it could “clear the aircraft congestion on the ground.” The ground stop began at 11:20 a.m. and lifted at noon.

“We sincerely apologize to our guests who are impacted and are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” the statement concludes.

The disruption also has affected the airline’s website. A banner across the top of the airline’s homepage up for a period of time Monday afternoon stated it was “having issues booking flights on alaskaair.com, through the mobile app, and at the contact center.” It asked customers to try again later. The banner was removed between 3 and 3:25 p.m. Monday.

According to data collected from FlightAware collected at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Alaska Airlines saw 156 delays and two cancellations out of Sea-Tac Airport Monday. Horizon Airlines, the regional airline owned by Alaska Air, saw an additional 46 delays and four cancellations.

The problems came at the start of the company’s Cyber Monday flight sale, The Associated Press (AP) noted. That sale goes until Wednesday. In comments from its account on X to customers complaining of missed flights, delays and problems using the airline’s app and website, the carrier also apologized.

Alaska Airlines has had tech issues multiple times in 2024

Alaska Airlines grounded its flights in Seattle briefly on a Sunday night in September due to “significant disruptions” from an unspecified technology problem that was resolved by about 10 p.m. local time,  the AP reported.

In comments from its account on X to customers complaining of delays and problems with the airline’s app and website, the carrier apologized for the delays. It later reported that the problem had been resolved. The exact reason for the disruptions was unclear.

The Seattle-based airline also had issues during a weekday morning in April. According to the AP, it said in a statement it requested a ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon air flights out of an abundance of caution after it “experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance.”

Alaska Airlines’ ground stop lasted from about 7:30-8:30 a.m. when flights began resuming. The airline said that day it expected residual delays throughout the day and recommended that travelers check their flight status before heading to the airport.

The grounding came as Senate committees held dual hearings examining allegations of major safety failures at Boeing, which has been pushed into crisis mode since a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Contributing: The Associated Press