Alaska Air Grounds Flights Amid IT Outage, Fears of Cyberattack

Alaska Air Group has requested a nationwide ground stop for all mainline aircraft due to an IT outage. The airline is experiencing issues with its IT systems, but the cause is not yet confirmed. The FAA has been notified, and the airline has apologized for the inconvenience. The disclosure coincides with warnings from Google and Palo Alto Networks about the "Scattered Spider" hacking group targeting the aviation sector. Alaska Air's stock price ended 0.28% lower on Friday.

Alaska Air Group has requested a nationwide ground stop for all mainline aircraft due to an IT outage that is impacting its operations. The airline, based in Seattle, experienced a system-wide outage on Sunday, July 21, 2025, at approximately 8 p.m. Pacific time (0300 GMT on Monday), which led to the grounding of all flights [1].

The IT outage has caused residual impacts to the airline's operations throughout the evening, and the company has requested a temporary ground stop for Alaska and Horizon Air flights until the issue is resolved [2]. The cause of the outage is not yet confirmed, and the airline has not provided specific details about the nature of the problem.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been notified about the situation, and the airline has apologized for any inconvenience caused to passengers [1]. This comes at a time when Google and Palo Alto Networks have warned about the "Scattered Spider" hacking group targeting the aviation sector, which has been actively exploiting vulnerabilities in various industries, including aviation [3].

Alaska Air Group maintains an operational fleet of 238 Boeing 737 aircraft and 87 Embraer 175 aircraft, according to its website. This is the second time in just over a year that the airline has had to ground its fleet due to IT problems [2]. In April 2024, the carrier temporarily grounded its fleet after experiencing an issue while upgrading the system that calculates weight and balance.

The stock price of Alaska Air Group ended 0.28% lower on Friday, reflecting the market's reaction to the IT outage and the potential impact on the airline's operations and financial performance.

References:
[1] https://nypost.com/2025/07/21/us-news/alaska-airlines-requests-ground-stop-for-all-mainline-aircraft-faa-says/
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-21/alaska-airlines-seeks-to-ground-fleet-in-request-to-faa
[3] https://blog.qualys.com/product-tech/2025/07/21/understanding-the-impact-of-scattered-spider-on-the-airline-transportation-industry