EVERETT — Alaska Airlines, the main airline serving Paine Field, briefly stopped all of its flights early Wednesday, when the airline told authorities it was experiencing a problem with its computer system.
Based on the information, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a directive early Wednesday grounding all Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights.
The FAA lifted the ban after about an hour and Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights were cleared to take off.
“This morning we experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we requested a ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon flights, which was instituted at approximately 7:30 a.m. The issue was mitigated and the ground stop for Alaska and Horizon flights expired at 8:30 a.m.,” the statement continued. “We have begun releasing flights.”
Several flights at Paine Field were delayed an hour or more on Wednesday, including a direct flight to San Francisco that was scheduled to depart at 8 a.m., but took off at 8:58 a.m. A direct flight to San Diego, scheduled to depart at 8:05 a.m. left at 9:20 a.m., according to Flightradar24, which tracks aircraft flights.
“Delays were about an hour,” Brett Smith, CEO of Propeller Airports, said around 11 a.m. “Things are moving along well.”
Propeller built and operates the 5-year-old passenger terminal at Paine Field.
The Seattle-based carrier said residual flight delays can be expected throughout the day.
“We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage guests to check the status of their flights on alaskaair.com or the Alaska App prior to heading to the airport,” the airline said.
Alaska Airlines and its subsidiary Horizon Air are the only airlines that operate from the Everett airport. Together they operate more than a dozen daily flights from the Paine Field passenger terminal.
Janice Podsada: 425-339-3097; jpodsada@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @JanicePods.
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