Alaska Airlines issues temporary ground grounding due to IT outage

Alaska Airlines issued a temporary ground grounding Thursday evening amid an IT outage.

The airline announced the grounding at 7:34 pm EST on the social media platform X, and asked travelers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.

At 10 p.m., the airline said on Channel X that it was “actively restoring operations” after the service outage. The Hill has reached out to Alaska Airlines for an update and to the FAA for comment.

According to flight tracking website FlightAware, 241 Alaska Airlines flights had been delayed as of late Thursday, with 44 such flights cancelled. It is unclear how many flights were delayed or canceled due to the IT outage.

The ground stop comes at a time when air travel is suffering amid the ongoing government closure. Airports across the country saw a large number of delays over the weekend due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.

Air traffic controllers are working without pay during the closure period.

Last month, United Airlines issued a temporary ground grounding due to a connectivity issue, affecting all of its flights in the US and Canada. On the same day, a technical problem affected American Airlines’ maintenance operations.

Last August, United issued a decision to stop flights at major American airports amid a technological problem. As a result, more than 1,000 flights were delayed.

The Associated Press contributed.