A major U.S. airline suspended all flights for several hours Thursday evening due to a technical glitch.
Shortly after 7:20 p.m. ET, Alaska Airlines announced a nationwide grounding, citing IT issues affecting its operations.
The technical glitch affected mainline operations in Alaska as well as flights operated by regional subsidiary Horizon Air.
A spokesperson confirmed to TPG that the outage in Alaska did not affect Hawaiian Airlines. Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines are operated by the same parent company but under separate brands.
Thursday’s disruption could cause significant flight delays across the airline’s network, including at several major hubs on the West Coast – from Seattle to Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
“We apologize for the inconvenience. If you are planning to fly tonight, please check your flight status before heading to the airport,” the Seattle-based airline said in a statement posted on its official social media account.
When checking the airline’s mobile app on Thursday night, a message at the top revealed ongoing technical issues affecting the airline’s systems.
While it’s unclear how many flights were initially affected by the ground stop, the disruption lasting several hours could cause a series of travel headaches late Thursday night and could leave residual problems on Friday.
Late Thursday, Alaska issued travel waivers to give passengers more flexibility to change or cancel flights. The advisory covers flights with original travel dates of Thursday or Friday and allows rebooking for any day between Thursday and Monday.
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Passengers who experience flight cancellations and significant delays are entitled to a refund under U.S. Department of Transportation policy if they ultimately choose not to fly with the airline rather than accept a rebooking.
Learn more: Flight canceled or delayed? This is what to do next
However, Alaska also provides a range of guarantees for passenger accommodations when major flight disruptions occur within the airline’s control – generally speaking, technical disruptions fall into this category. These details can be found on the Department of Transportation’s FlightRights.gov dashboard.
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