On Wednesday, a software upgrade caused an Alaska Air ground stop. Thankfully, the cease in system-wide operations was relatively brief, though the repercussions were, understandably, widespread.
IT-related issues have become an all too common headaches for airlines and their passengers. They range from small blips to multi-day system meltdowns – hi, Southwest! The latest of these afflicted Alaska Airlines and was, thankfully, the former type of issue.
Software Upgrade Caused an Alaska Air Ground Stop
On Wednesday, April 17, 2024, a software upgrade caused an Alaska Air ground stop. The stoppage was communicated (at the request of Alaska Air) by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when the airline “experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance.” Weight and balance calculations are a critical part of ensuring safe operations of aircraft. Unbalanced weight distribution within aircraft can throw off its center of gravity, which can lead to minor issues such as decreased fuel efficiency to more major ones like stability/control issues.
Beyond ensuring proper weight distribution, weight and balance calculations are crucial to ensure aircraft stay within their weight parameters, with one of the most important being Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW). Most commercial aircraft can loaded in a manor that exceeds their MTOW, especially since it’s influenced by other factors such as operating environment (hot & high) and in-flight conditions (strong headwinds). This is why airlines are sometimes forced to bump passengers and fly with empty seats – to keep within MTOW to accommodate reduced performance at hot, high-altitude airports or carry extra fuel to combat strong headwinds.
If the computer systems used to calculate these weights and balances is out of whack, it’s easy to see how risky the situation may become. That’s why the FAA ordered a ground stop in this case, which went into effect at about 8:50 am PST (5:50 am HST) and lasted for roughly an hour.
Systemwide Impacts
Naturally, the software upgrade caused an Alaska Air ground stop lasting one-hour won’t come without impacts. Alaska Air warned passengers on Wednesday to check their flight status throughout the day, as delays were possible. This is especially true if the aircraft scheduled to operate your flight was stuck somewhere during the stop, which would likely have a domino effect throughout the day. However, checking ADS-B tracking sites on Wednesdays showed that not all flights were being delayed. It also appeared that Alaska got things rolling really quickly after the ground stop was lifted, as most delays remained under an hour.
While the ground stop affected all Alaska Air Group flights, things were a bit different on the regional side. You see, regional ops are split in two, with Alaska Air Group’s Horizon subsidiary handling just over 50% of their regional flying and regional airline SkyWest handling the remainder. However, because SkyWest is a separate entity with its own technology, flights operated by SkyWest weren’t impacted at all.
Software Upgrade Caused an Alaska Air Ground Stop, Final Thoughts
While the fact that a software upgrade caused an Alaska Air ground stop is unfortunate, though it really wasn’t that bad. No one can beat the multi-day meltdown Southwest had during the holiday season, but even Hawaiian’s system upgrade was far worse than this.
Literally a year ago on April 19, 2023, Hawaiian swapped its existing passenger service system with the Amadeus’ Altea platform. The change didn’t trigger a ground stop, though it had to happen during a time Hawaiian had no aircraft in the air. What did happen, though, was a massive system error, making it impossible for passengers to check-in for flights at home, on the mobile app, and in many cases, at the airport, too. In extreme cases, passengers’ reservations vanished altogether.
Of course, this resulted in a massive number of missed flights and customer frustration. But even as things began to improve, issues with not being able to book flights online persisted for over a month after the changeover. Plus, during that time, the Honolulu data center with Hawaiian’s servers in it inadvertently cut power to its systems, triggering a four-hour ground stop for Hawaiian.
You know what’s really rich, though? The Star-Advertiser’s reporting on Alaska Air’s ground stop just had to include a little bit about Boeing issues, and especially the MAX 9 door plug incident. Seriously? It’s not even related to this in any way!