Alaska Airlines resumes operations after an IT outage grounded its flights for hours

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SEATTLE (AP) — Alaska Airlines said its operations have resumed Thursday after it had to ground its planes for hours because of an information technology outage.

The airline said in a statement that 229 flights were cancelled because of the outage and that more flight disruptions were expected as it worked to “reposition aircraft and crews.”

Alaska Airlines said it is working on getting travelers affected by the disruption to their destinations.

It asked that passengers check their flight status before heading to the airport.

The grounding Wednesday affected Alaska Air and Horizon Air flights.

Hawaiian Airlines, which was bought by Alaska Air Group last year, said its flights were operating as scheduled.

In July, Alaska grounded all of its flights for about three hours after the failure of a critical piece of hardware at a data center.

There has been a history of computer problems disrupting flights in the industry, though most of the time the disruptions are only temporary.