After a seven-hour outage that grounded planes across its network, Alaska Airlines said it restored operations Thursday night following a “major IT outage.”
But flight cancellations were already piling up for Friday.
And the Seattle-based airline warned overnight that more flight disruptions are likely as it recovers from the outage that affected its entire network. The carrier issued a flexible travel exemption to travelers willing to change their travel plans.
A “significant” IT outage
Alaska initially requested a nationwide grounding for its flights around 7:21 p.m. EDT (4:21 p.m. PDT) on Thursday, citing a technological glitch that had affected its operations.
The disruption affected both Alaska’s core operation and its flights operated by regional subsidiary Horizon Air, but not Hawaiian Airlines, which is run by the same parent company as Alaska.
The grounding caused massive flight delays and cancellations at America’s fifth-largest airline, and left passengers stranded at airports across the country, especially in major hubs on Alaska’s west coast, from Seattle to Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
In total, the service disruption in Alaska caused about 229 flight cancellations, the airline said. Added to this were hundreds of additional delays. Alaska’s Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) home base was the hardest hit, with more than 10% of all departures canceled Thursday, according to FlightAware.
More travel problems expected on Friday
Alaska was able to resume service around 2:30 a.m. EDT (11:30 p.m. PDT), the airline said, although it warned that additional disruptions were likely as it repositioned planes after halting departures for more than seven hours.
As of 4:30 a.m. EDT on Friday, Alaska had preemptively canceled nearly 100 flights for Friday, according to data from FlightAware, at least 12% of its network.
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That number could increase on Friday as the airline gets its flight operations back on track.
“We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted,” Alaska said in a statement. “We are working to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible. Before heading to the airport, we encourage travelers to check the status of their flight.”
What to do if your flight is canceled or delayed
Late Thursday, Alaska issued a travel waiver to allow passengers additional flexibility to change or cancel their flight. the notice It covered flights with an original travel date of Thursday or Friday, and allowed rebooking any day between Thursday and Monday.
Passengers experiencing flight cancellations and major delays are right to a refund under US Department of Transportation policies, that is, if they ultimately decide not to fly with the airline rather than accept a rebooking.
Read more: Flight canceled or delayed? Here’s what to do next
However, Alaska has also offered a number of guarantees for passenger accommodations when there is a major flight disruption within the airline’s control. Generally, a technological disruption falls into that category. Those details can be found on the DOT website. FlightRights.gov panel.
In the wake of Thursday night’s outage, Alaska Air Group also postponed its third-quarter earnings presentation that had been planned for Friday.
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