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- Alaska Airlines grounded all flights nationwide Thursday evening due to a tech outage.
- The FAA said the ground stop also covered its regional arm, Horizon Air.
- It's the airline's second major IT outage this year — it also grounded flights in July for that reason.
Alaska Airlines said it had grounded all flights across the US on Thursday evening after a tech outage disrupted its operations — the second major IT failure to hit the carrier this year.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the carrier also requested a more than two-hour ground stop for its subsidiary, Horizon Air.
"Alaska Airlines is experiencing an IT outage affecting operations. A temporary ground stop is in place. We apologize for the inconvenience," Alaska Airlines said in a statement on social media.
The airline advised customers to check their flight status before heading to the airport if they're scheduled to fly on Thursday night.
In response to Business Insider, Alaska Airlines said in a statement that the outage began about 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, following a failure at its primary data center.
"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," the airline said, adding that flight safety was never compromised.
The company also said the issue did not affect Hawaiian Airlines flights and that the outage was not a cybersecurity incident.
At press time, a notice on the airline's website said it's offering a "flexible" travel policy for customers who want to change or cancel their flights due to the outage.
It applies to tickets purchased on or before Thursday with original travel dates from Thursday to Friday. Travelers can rebook for new flights between Thursday and Monday.
Alaska Airlines' primary hub is on the West Coast, and it serves more than 140 destinations across 37 states and 12 countries. Its parent company, Alaska Air Group, employs over 30,000 people.
Customers took to social media to report issues accessing the airline's website and mobile app.
"Unfortunately, we are experiencing an error on our system, but our IT team is working to get this resolved as soon as possible," Alaska Airlines said in response to an X user who said she experienced issues with the airline's app.
The outage comes just as Alaska Air reported quarterly earnings this week, showing that a previous IT meltdown in July had hurt its results.
In its third-quarter report released Thursday, Alaska Air said higher fuel and non-fuel cost pressure resulting from an IT outage in July forced it to lower its full-year profit outlook.
The carrier reported adjusted earnings of $1.05 per share for the quarter, missing analysts' average estimate of $1.13 apiece.
Representatives for Alaska Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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