IT problems prompt Alaska Airlines audit

Alaska Airlines is bringing in an outside party to review its IT systems after three major incidents in just over three months.

In a statement, the airline said it’s engaged Accenture, “a leading global information technology and management consulting firm.”

This comes after a Microsoft Azure Cloud outage knocked out the airlines’ online services on Wednesday, causing delays.

Just the week before, some flights had to be canceled when problems at the airline’s primary data center forced it to ground its fleet for hours. A critical hardware failure at the data center in July also caused an hours-long ground stop and canceled flights.

During one of the ground stops, a stranded passenger told KIRO 7 TV, “We spent more time waiting in line to try and figure out our canceled flight than it took to fly from China to Seattle.”

The airline said its work with Accenture will include a “top-to-bottom” review and assessment of Alaska’s technology systems. The airline promised to implement recommendations quickly.

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