Alaska Airlines Devastated By Major It Outage: Over Four Hundred Flights Canceled, And Forty-nine Thousand Passengers Stranded In Nationwide Ground Stop!

Published on October 25, 2025

By: Paramita Sarkar

On October 24, 2025, Alaska Airlines knowledgeable a important accusation exertion (IT) outage, triggering a nationwide crushed extremity and halting each departures for astir 3 hours. The outage led to complete 400 formation cancellations, affecting astir 49,000 passengers crossed nan U.S. and marking nan 2nd awesome IT disruption for nan bearer successful 2025. While operations person mostly resumed, betterment efforts continue, and nan hose has pledged to acquisition a broad IT infrastructure reappraisal to forestall early failures.

What happened during nan IT outage?

The outage began astatine astir 18:00 UTC connected October 24, erstwhile Alaska Airlines knowledgeable a nonaccomplishment successful its halfway IT systems, impacting formation scheduling, check-in services, and operations software. This nonaccomplishment caused awesome disruptions successful Alaska Airlines’ expertise to negociate its formation schedule, including a halt to each departures. At 18:30 UTC, nan Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide crushed extremity for each Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights, impacting airports from Seattle-Tacoma International to Los Angeles International and beyond.

By 21:30 UTC, nan crushed extremity was lifted, but delayed flights continued to cascade, affecting thousands of passengers. The betterment process started immediately, pinch complete 400 flights canceled by nan evening of October 24. Hotel accommodations and rebooking services were initiated for affected passengers, who faced agelong lines and delays for nan remainder of nan night.

Where were nan impacts felt?

The IT nonaccomplishment had wide effects crossed nan Alaska Airlines network, pinch awesome disruptions occurring astatine cardinal hubs for illustration Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA), Los Angeles International (LAX), and Boston Logan (BOS). Flights from different airports, including Portland and Anchorage, were besides importantly impacted. Many passengers reported being stranded astatine airports for hours, pinch constricted connection from nan hose regarding nan position of their flights.

While world flights were mostly unaffected, nan home network, particularly flights operated by Alaska Airlines and its location subsidiary Horizon Air, bore nan brunt of nan disruption. Passengers walking connected these flights knowledgeable delays of up to 8 hours aliases more.

When did nan rumor begin, and really agelong did it last?

The IT strategy nonaccomplishment began astir 18:00 UTC connected October 24, 2025, pinch a crushed extremity issued by nan FAA soon thereafter. Operations resumed connected a partial ground by 21:30 UTC, but it took until nan greeting of October 25 for afloat operations to normalize. Over 400 flights were canceled, and nan hose worked passim nan nighttime to rebook passengers and supply accommodations.

Why did nan IT outage happen?

Alaska Airlines has attributed nan IT outage to an soul method nonaccomplishment wrong its halfway systems, which are responsible for captious functions specified arsenic formation scheduling, preservation management, and weight-and-balance calculations. The hose has emphasized that nan rumor was not linked to outer factors specified arsenic a cyberattack aliases authorities shutdown. This marks nan 2nd IT nonaccomplishment for Alaska Airlines successful 2025, nan first occurring successful July erstwhile a akin strategy malfunction grounded flights for respective hours.

Alaska Airlines has acknowledged that nan incident was unacceptable and has committed to a broad reappraisal of its IT infrastructure, moving pinch outer experts to heighten strategy resilience. The hose intends to instrumentality upgrades that attraction connected redundancy, backups, and failover systems to guarantee a much robust strategy moving forward.

How did nan hose respond?

In consequence to nan outage, Alaska Airlines instantly activated its contingency plans, which included manual overrides for captious functions. The hose worked to rebook affected passengers and supply edifice accommodations for those stranded astatine airports. The hose besides waived alteration fees for affected travelers and provided repast vouchers to thief easiness nan inconvenience.

Despite these efforts, passengers faced important disruptions, pinch galore reporting agelong hold times for rebooking, delays successful receiving compensation for baggage claims, and trouble securing reimbursements for incidentals. Social media was flooded pinch complaints, arsenic travelers expressed vexation complete nan deficiency of connection and agelong queues for assistance.

Passenger and Operational Impact

The standard of nan disruption was significant, pinch astir 49,000 passengers affected by nan IT outage. Many passengers faced missed connections, agelong waits for rebooking, and exhaustion from extended airdrome stays. The outage besides exacerbated existing challenges successful nan aerial recreation system, pinch passengers connected different carriers experiencing delays owed to shared gates and airdrome congestion.

Preliminary estimates propose that nan economical toll connected Alaska Airlines could beryllium substantial, pinch millions successful costs related to re-accommodations, recreation vouchers, and mislaid revenue. The airline’s ongoing betterment efforts see rebooking passengers connected replacement flights and offering compensation to those impacted by nan disruption.

Broader Implications for nan Airline Industry

This incident highlights nan increasing dependence of nan hose manufacture connected integer systems, pinch moreover insignificant IT failures causing monolithic disruptions. The outage underscores nan vulnerability of airlines to technological failures, which person been a increasing interest successful nan aviation sector.

Alaska Airlines’ 2nd IT nonaccomplishment successful 4 months raises questions astir nan resilience of its infrastructure, peculiarly arsenic nan hose continues to grow pursuing its merger pinch Hawaiian Airlines. Other airlines, including Delta and United, person faced akin issues successful caller years, underscoring nan request for continuous betterment successful IT systems and disaster betterment plans.

Conclusion

The Alaska Airlines IT outage connected October 24, 2025, caused wide disruption crossed nan carrier’s home network, pinch complete 400 flights canceled and astir 50,000 passengers affected. While operations person mostly returned to normal, nan hose continues its betterment efforts, moving to rebook passengers and reside nan economical effect of nan disruption. In nan aftermath, Alaska Airlines has committed to a afloat reappraisal of its IT infrastructure and plans to instrumentality upgrades to guarantee early resilience.

As nan hose manufacture grapples pinch expanding reliance connected integer systems, this incident serves arsenic a reminder of nan fragility of modern aerial recreation and nan request for robust backup systems to mitigate nan effect of specified failures. Passengers are advised to enactment updated connected their formation position and activity assistance from Alaska Airlines customer work if their recreation plans are affected.

Image: Alaska Airlines