Alaska Airlines Recovers from Disastrous Computer Problem

Alaska Airlines is in recovery mode after experiencing one of the worst computer problems in recent history for commercial airlines. The whole event unfolded as a result of a computer outage that was simply caused by technicians who were attempting to install a new power system for one of the company’s computer systems. It just happened to be the computer system that handles all of the company’s websites, flight planning, routing and more. This leaves most wondering how can a company the size of Alaska Airlines not have multiple systems in place to prevent a disaster such as this.

Alaska Airlines are just beginning to see the damage from this event which was totally unnecessary and should have never occurred. It is now five days after the fact and there are still a small amount of passengers that are just getting to their original destinations. The original computer outage that occurred on Saturday March 26 resulted in the cancellation of approximately 20% of the company’s flights, affecting over 11,000 passengers. Alaska Airlines company representatives say that they are planning to compensate those passengers who were left stranded. They have not said exactly what the compensation will consist of, but you can imagine it will be in the form of travel vouchers. This may satisfy some, but others who had to spend 2-3 nights in a hotel may not be happy with this.

Alaska Airlines has stated that they are handling customer issues one at a time and that those impacted should either call the company or contact them through their website. There were some customers who had to pay upwards of $500 for hotel and other expenses as a result of the problem. These customers will likely seek reimbursement from Alaska Airlines for their troubles. Ideally the airline will step up to the plate and do the right thing by reimbursing these customers. It is the right thing to do and would probably keep these folks as customers in the future.

Any way you cut it this will be an expensive lesson in computer systems management for Alaska Airlines. How a company of this size does not have extensive measures in place to deal with a situation like this is beyond me. It is likely that they will be seriously reevaluating their current computer system setup and making some changes in the near future. A costly error for the company, that no doubt could have been easily prevented.