Latest news with #flightdelays
CNET
an hour ago
- Business
- CNET
Alaska Airlines Flights Resume After IT Outage. What to Do if You Were Affected
Alaska Airlines paused its operations for several hours late on July 20 due to what the company called, "a significant IT outage" that affected its operations. About three hours later, flights resumed and the company posted on X: "Alaska Airlines has resolved its earlier IT outage and has resumed operations. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and encourage guests to check your flight status before heading to the airport." The delays affected Alaska Air and Horizon Air flights at airports including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where about 49 flights were canceled and 43 were delayed as of the moving of July 21, according to a local report. In an email to CNET, Alaska Air gave more details about what caused the outage on Sunday. "A critical piece of multi-redundant hardware at our data centers, manufactured by a third-party, experienced an unexpected failure," the company said in an email. "When that happened, it impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations, necessitating the implementation of a ground stop to keep aircraft in position. The safety of our flights was never compromised," Alaska Air said. "We are currently working with our vendor to replace the hardware equipment at the data center." The company added the outages were not related to a cybersecurity incident that affected Hawaiian Airlines in June. In total, more than 150 flights were canceled, including 64 cancelations on Monday. "Additional flight disruptions are likely as we reposition aircraft and crews throughout our network," the company said. What customers can do If you were or continue to be impacted by the disruption, you're probably wondering what to do next. "We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted," said the airline. "We're working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can. Before heading to the airport, we encourage flyers to check their flight status." Last year, rules changed on what customers are entitled to when flights are canceled or delayed. Although airlines have tried to roll back those rules under a new presidential administration, they're still in place. Those changes to compensation called for automatic, prompt refunds for canceled or significantly delayed flights without requiring customers to jump through excessive hoops to get compensation. The determination for a refund often depends on whether a cancelation resulted in a wait time of three or more hours. According to the Department of Transportation's Airline Cancelation Delay Dashboard, Alaska Airlines has some of the more flexible customer policies regarding delays and cancelations, Alaska's customer service line is at 1-800-252-7522. They also offer a Help Center web page that includes an AI-powered chatbot called Ask Alaska.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Airlines Grounds All Flights After IT System Meltdown
Alaska Airlines brought its entire fleet to a stop Sunday night after a major tech failure shut down internal systems. The airline told Fox News Digital the issue hit around 8 p.m. Pacific. Not long after, Alaska called for a full ground stop on all flights — including Horizon Air. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the halt on its site, listing 'all destinations' as affected. 'We requested a temporary, system-wide ground stop… until the issue is resolved,' an Alaska spokesperson said. 'We apologize to our guests for this inconvenience.' The airline's website showed a red banner warning travelers about system issues and advising them to check flight info before heading to the airport. Flights Frozen, No Timeline There's no estimate for when things will return to normal. Alaska said delays will stretch through the night. The airline has more than 300 planes in service. Full fleet groundings are rare unless dispatch or scheduling tools go down completely. The outage hit hardest on the West Coast. At Seattle-Tacoma International, Alaska's main hub, passengers reported sitting on planes or stuck at gates with little information. As of late Sunday, the company hadn't said what caused the crash. This story is developing. The Dallas Express will post updates as they come in. Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Alaska Airlines ground stop causes widespread US travel chaos
Americans have been warned to brace for travel chaos this morning after Alaska Airlines was forced to ground its entire fleet for more than three hours at short notice. The major airline issued an extraordinary request at 10.50pm EST to the US Federal Aviation Administration to stop all mainline flights across the United States due to a system-wide IT outage. The ground stop was initially due to last until midnight, but was extended several times as authorities grappled with the IT problem. The order was finally lifted at 2am EST despite warnings of a moderate chance it would be extended once again. Alaska Airlines admitted the ground stop would cause delays for travelers and have knock on effects into Monday. 'At approximately 8 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, Alaska Airlines experienced an IT outage that's impacting our operations,' the airline said in a statement Sunday evening. 'We requested a temporary, system-wide ground stop for Alaska and Horizon Air flights until the issue is resolved.' The airline has warned of 'residual impacts to our operation throughout the evening' amid concerns about widespread travel delays. 'If you are traveling tonight, please check the status of your flight before leaving for the airport. 'We apologize to our guests for this inconvenience.' At 10.30pm, all passengers were instructed to disembark and await further instruction, he said. Another passenger, Riley Davis, said after two and a half hours on the tarmac, he still had no indication of when he would be free to deplane. 'Since they cannot coordinate exact gates, they are manually assigning gates via radio communication,' he revealed. 'I would love to know when I can get some dinner, I'm starving.' He was inundated with comments from other travelers who said they'd noticed tarmacs around the country blocked by Alaska Airlines planes which had nowhere to go. The Alaska Airlines statement, shared to X at least two hours after the crisis began, has been swamped with confused and furious customers demanding answers as they await further instruction at airports across the nation. 'My son, a minor flying accompanied, is stranded on one of your planes right now. I will never let him fly Alaska Airlines again,' one furious mom wrote. 'We've been sitting on the tarmac for over an hour and being told it's going to be another hour of sitting here with stagnant air smelling gasoline. It's 10:20pm people are tired, hungry, etc. This is not okay,' another wrote. A third added: 'After a 6 hour flight, we've been sitting on the tarmac for over 2 hours.' The FAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It comes weeks after a damning report revealed that major errors by Boeing led to a door plug flying off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max mid flight, putting the lives of 175 passengers and crew at risk. The National Transportation Safety Board said a flawed manufacturing process within Boeing and insufficient regulatory oversight caused the near catastrophic disaster. 'An accident like this only happens when there are multiple system failures,' NTSB chairman Jennifer Homendy said. The NTSB has been investigating what went so wrong just six minutes into the January 2024 flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California. The initial probe found four key bolts that were meant to hold the door plug in place were were missing from the aircraft. It has since been established the door left Boeing's factory in Renton, Washington without those crucial bolts. Just one of those bolts, if properly secured, would have held the door panel in place, and the other three were supposed to be used as an additional safety mechanism. No fault was found with Alaska Airlines crew qualifications or preflight inspections. The heroic actions of the crew of Alaska Airlines flight 1282 ensured everyone survived, Homendy found.
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Major Ukrainian drone attacks sow chaos at Moscow's airports
Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport (file image). Photo: AFP / Natalia Kolesnikova Major Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia sowed chaos at major airports serving Moscow on Monday, with thousands of passengers waiting in lines or sleeping on the floor after flights were cancelled or delayed, Russian media reported. Videos published by Russian media showed people sleeping on the floor of Sheremetyevo, Russia's busiest airport by passenger numbers, amid long queues. Russia's defence ministry said it had downed 117 drones overnight, including 30 over the Moscow region, after downing 172 drones, including 30 over the Moscow region, the previous day. Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, briefly imposed restrictions on flights overnight at Moscow's main airports - Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovskiy. Several thousand people were stranded in the far east of Russia due to the cancellation of flights in European Russia, while extra trains were put on to bring passengers back to Moscow from the northern Russian city of St Petersburg, Russian media said. Moscow and its surrounding region has a population of at least 21.5 million. - Reuters
CNN
10 hours ago
- Business
- CNN
Alaska Airlines grounds all flights due to IT outage
Alaska Airlines grounds its flights and those of a regional subsidiary Horizon Air due to an IT outage affecting its operations, the company said Sunday evening. The ground stop, which began around 8 p.m. PT (11 p.m. ET), impacts both Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air operations, according to Alaska Airlines. Horizon Air is the Alaska Air Group's subsidiary serving mainly the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. 'We requested a temporary, system-wide ground stop for Alaska and Horizon Air flights until the issue is resolved,' Alaska Airlines said in its statement to CNN. In a post on X, the airline said the IT outage is 'affecting operations' and that 'a temporary ground stop is in place.' Alaska Airlines did not say the cause of the outage, but warned of delays throughout the evening and advised travelers to check their flight status before heading to the airport. 'We apologize to our guests for this inconvenience. There will be residual impacts to our operation throughout the evening,' it said in its statement. The Federal Aviation Administration's website said late Sunday that the request to ground all Alaska Airline mainline flights was made around 10:52 p.m. ET. This is a developing story and will be updated.
