FAA lifts ‘ground stop’ advisory for Alaska Airlines

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded Alaska Airlines aircraft for about an hour Wednesday morning.

“All Alaska mainline and subcarrier flights ground stopped,” the FAA said around 7:40 a.m. Wednesday. It was lifted around 8:30.

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The only exclusion was for SkyWest, which provides regional service for Alaska Airlines and others.

Alaska Air issued this statement about the ground stop:

This morning we experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance. A ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon flights was instituted at approximately 7:50 a.m. We’re working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage guests to check the status of their flights on alaskaair.com or the Alaska App prior to heading to the airport.

A “ground stop” is a traffic management initiative requiring aircraft that meet specific criteria to remain on the ground at their origination airport.

Shannon flew on an Alaska flight out of SeaTac airport Wednesday morning. She didn’t hear about the ground stop, but said it didn’t put a damper in her travel plans.

“I was running a little late so I’m going ‘thank you’ for the delay,” she laughed.

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As of noon Wednesday, nearly 150 Alaska and Horizon flights were experiencing delays at SeaTac airport, according to FlightAware. Shannon said that’s a surprise to her.

“My flight is delayed around 45 minutes,” she told KIRO Newsradio. “And even that’s very strange because usually when Alaska’s late, it’s like 10 or 15 minutes.”

Dave Young, another Alaska passenger, said he typically has no trouble with the airline’s service.

“The only real difficult time we had was in January, with a Hawaii trip,” he said. “They had to keep changing planes.”

January saw Alaska Airlines under heavy scrutiny, after a plane’s door plug blew out mid-flight over Portland.

The airline says the software system problem that triggered this ground stop is fixed, and there are no safety concerns with any aircraft.

The company asked those with reservations to check the status of their flights on alaskaair.com.

You can read more of Kate Stone’s stories here. Follow Kate on X, formerly known as Twitter, or email her here.
Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.