SEATTLE — Online check-in and other digital touchpoints for Alaska Airlines passengers ground to a halt Wednesday after a worldwide disruption of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform rippled through the carrier’s back-end systems.
What Went Wrong With Alaska Airlines’ Check-In Outage
According to Alaska Airlines, the breakdown stemmed from a broad Azure outage that also affected Hawaiian Airlines and other Azure-hosted clients. The carrier relies on Microsoft’s cloud to serve its alaskaair.com domain, mobile-app functionality and certain gate-side applications. When Azure faltered, travelers in Seattle, Portland, Anchorage and beyond found themselves unable to retrieve boarding passes, change seats or track flights. “In a statement, the airline said ‘key services were down,’” including its main website, self-service kiosks and some agent tools. Because the problem was rooted in third-party infrastructure, Alaska’s own engineers had little choice but to wait for Microsoft’s fix.
Microsoft Pinpoints the Glitch
Microsoft’s status dashboard confirmed the issue and reported that engineers had isolated the failure to a networking layer inside Azure’s worldwide backbone. “A fix has been deployed,” Microsoft said in a status update, but it cautioned that full recovery could take “several hours.” Alaska Airlines echoed that timetable, warning customers that digital channels might remain spotty through the afternoon.
Third Tech Disruption in Three Months
Wednesday’s snag marks the third technology flare-up Alaska Airlines passengers have endured in the past three months. Earlier incidents involved a scheduling-software misfire that delayed crew assignments and a separate outage that knocked out reservation-system access for frontline agents. Although each episode had different root causes, the cumulative pattern is unsettling for flyers who expect seamless digital experiences, especially on time-sensitive travel days.
Why Azure Matters to Your Journey
Airlines increasingly outsource core applications to cloud providers, trading on-premise servers for the scalability and redundancy promised by platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. When those massive infrastructures sneeze, airlines catch a cold—and passengers shoulder the symptoms in the form of longer lines and manual processing at airports. Alaska Airlines leverages Azure for:
- Website hosting and mobile-app APIs.
- Real-time flight-status and gate-change notifications.
- Self-service check-in kiosks at most U.S. airports.
- Crew-scheduling tools and dispatch communications.
Disruption of any one component produces a ripple effect because modern airline workflows are tightly integrated. When kiosks fail, passengers queue for agent assistance; when agents lose computer access, boarding and departure cascades slow across the gate network.
Impact at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport
Sea-Tac, Alaska’s largest hub, felt the brunt of the glitch. Travelers reported on social media that paper passes were being handwritten in certain lines, while gate agents reverted to manual boarding procedures. Though no system-wide ground stop was issued, several morning departures left late as staff worked through backlog. Beyond Seattle, travelers at Portland International, Anchorage’s Ted Stevens Airport and Los Angeles International saw intermittent delays but relatively smooth operations thanks to low midweek traffic. Hawaiian Airlines, running the same Azure-based stack for portions of its e-commerce site, issued a brief advisory but reported minimal schedule disruption.
Tips for Travelers Caught in the Digital Crunch
- Arrive early. Alaska recommends at least two hours for domestic flights while systems remain unstable.
- Bring printed copies. Screenshot or print itineraries and electronic tickets before heading to the airport.
- Use airport kiosks—if online. Some kiosks operate on separate networks and may recover faster.
- Monitor your flight manually. If the airline app is down, check FlightAware or airport FIDS monitors.
- Follow social channels. @AlaskaAir on X and the carrier’s Facebook page post real-time updates.
Looking Ahead: Resilience Questions for Cloud-First Airlines
While Wednesday’s event appears to be squarely on Microsoft’s side of the equation, it raises broader questions about contingency planning. Airlines typically run multi-region failovers within a single cloud provider but seldom replicate entire environments across multiple providers because of cost and complexity. Travelers, meanwhile, bear the brunt of any fragility after years of being nudged toward self-service digital tools. Alaska Airlines said it would review this latest incident “to determine what additional safeguards are necessary.” Microsoft, for its part, promised a full root-cause analysis of why a single networking hiccup propagated globally.
FAQ
- Were flights canceled? Alaska Airlines reported no mass cancellations, but some departures were delayed as agents reverted to manual processes.
- Is it safe to book new tickets now? Yes. Sales engines have returned online, though users might experience slower response times until Microsoft confirms complete recovery.
- Does this affect Mileage Plan upgrades? Elite upgrade processing could be slower because the underlying inventory system syncs through Azure. Expect potential lags in confirmation notices.
- Will travel-credit vouchers be offered? As of press time, Alaska had not announced goodwill compensation. Historically, the carrier evaluates disruption severity before issuing credits.
Bottom Line for Jetsetters
If you are flying Alaska Airlines in the next 24 hours, budget extra time and keep analog backups of critical travel documents. Technology has made air travel more efficient—until it fails. Wednesday’s Azure outage is a reminder that even cloud-savvy airlines can experience turbulence when the backbone goes down. — as the airline said in a prepared statement.
