Recent airline operations have been impacted by computer system disruptions, leading to flight cancellations and passenger delays. These incidents highlight the reliance of the airline industry on complex IT infrastructure for managing various aspects of flight operations.
Recent Incidents
In July, Alaska Airlines experienced an IT outage that resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights, primarily from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Passengers, including tech industry veteran Tony Scott, reported difficulties with baggage and customer service processes. Alaska Airlines attributed this outage to an "unexpected failure" of critical hardware at one of its data centers. The airline faced another significant outage in October, leading to over 100 flight cancellations.
Previous incidents include a software update that disrupted Delta Air Lines flights last year and a major operational disruption at Southwest Airlines three years prior following a severe winter storm.
Contributing Factors to System Fragility
Industry experts, such as Eash Sundaram, former Chief Information Officer of JetBlue Airways, characterize the airline IT ecosystem as inherently fragile. Sundaram notes a limited availability of commercial off-the-shelf software tailored for airline-specific functions. This necessitates airlines either developing their own systems or integrating components from multiple vendors. He explains that a failure in one system can rapidly cascade, potentially disrupting an entire network with as few as 100 flight cancellations.
Tony Scott, a former Chief Information Officer at Microsoft and for the federal government, describes airline technology infrastructure as a "spider's web" of systems developed at different times by various teams. This complex architecture can contribute to challenges in managing and recovering from IT failures.
Industry Responses and Mitigation
The recovery from system disruptions can be challenging. Southwest Airlines experienced an extended recovery period after a major winter storm three years ago, impacting its crew network.
Lauren Woods, Chief Information Officer at Southwest Airlines, stated that the airline has since invested significantly in its technology, particularly in systems managing flight crews. Woods indicated that these investments have improved the airline's ability to detect problems earlier and manage disruptions more effectively, even weathering larger events since the prior incident. She emphasized that while tech outages may still occur, the focus is on rapid recovery times.
These ongoing efforts underscore the industry's focus on enhancing system resilience and response capabilities to minimize the impact of future IT disruptions on airline operations and passenger travel.