Alaska Airlines grounded by mystery IT meltdown

Failure at primary datacenter leaves planes parked and passengers angry, second incident since July

Updated Timing is everything – except when it isn't. US carrier Alaska Airlines has grounded its fleet once again due to a mystery IT issue.

The problem began at 3:30 pm Pacific Time on October 23 with a "failure" at the company's primary datacenter. Alaska Airlines insisted it wasn't a cybersecurity event or related to "any other events."

The result? A system-wide ground stop of Alaska and Horizon Air flights, though Hawaiian Airlines (which joined Alaska in 2024) was apparently unaffected.

"The IT outage has impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations, necessitating the implementation of the ground stop to keep our aircraft in position," Alaska Airlines said. "The safety of our flights was never compromised."

The ground stop wasn't lifted until 11:30 pm Pacific Time, by which point more than 229 flights had been canceled. The company didn't confirm delay numbers but warned that "additional flight disruptions are likely as we reposition aircraft and crews throughout our network."

Customers took to social media to express their dissatisfaction with both the airline and its customer service. Some reported being on hold for hours as they attempted to contact the airline to find the fate of their flight, while others found themselves stranded.

This marked the second such mystery outage after a July incident also grounded the fleet.

Alaska Airlines postponed the conference call for its Q3 2025 financial results, originally scheduled for today.

Revenue hit $3.8 billion and net income dropped to $73 million, down from $236 million a year earlier. Q4 revenue is expected to increase by low single digits year-over-year.

"We do not yet have an estimate of the financial impact of the operational disruption on our fourth quarter results," the company said.

The lingering question is what caused such a comprehensive failure? If the primary datacenter went down, customers would reasonably expect rapid failover to secondary systems.

The Register has asked Alaska Airlines for details.®

Updated at 13.34 UTC on October 24, 2025, to add:

An Alaska Airlines spokesperson told The Register the cancellation count was now "more than 360 flights" on Alaska and Horizon, as the company works through issues following last night's IT outage.

"We sincerely apologize to our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted."