On Friday, August 29, SkyWest Airlines requested a ground stop of its fleet nationwide while the carrier worked to resolve a technology issue with its operational control systems. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the advisory at 01:49 GMT and canceled at 02:10 GMT, per the Guardian’s report.
The Operations Control Center (OCC) of Skywest is responsible for managing 591 planes, as the latest fleet update from Planespotters.net outlines. The SkyWest fleet operates regional connections for the “big three” of US air travel: 
Delta Air Lines, 
United Airlines, 
American Airlines, as well as 
Alaska Airlines.
Tech’s Crucial Role In Air Travel
Fortunately in this case, the ground stop only lasted 21 minutes before the SkyWest fleet was back to business as usual. Ground stops are a crucial safety measure in these cases to prevent a widespread loss of control and maintain order by avoiding airport gridlock and unsafe operations. It acts as a proactive safety measure to prevent accidents and enact a controlled resolution to a complex situation.
Grounding flights during an IT failure where vital systems are offline is a safety-first decision to chart a safe path forward. It ensures aircraft management is uninterrupted and ensures passenger safety. Grounding flights also prevents airports from becoming overwhelmed due to a lack of airline coordination creating gridlock.
SkyWest issued the following statement at the conclusion of the self-imposed ground stop, as relayed by Reuters:
“SkyWest experienced a brief technology issue this evening that has since been resolved. All systems have been restored and we are working to mitigate any delays as we resume normal operations.”
Safety First And Foremost For Flyers
A ground stop ensures that more flights do not take off until issues are resolved. According to News Nation, SkyWest carried over 42 million flyers in 2024, with hundreds of planes and tens of thousands of Americans onboard at any given moment, safety is always the top priority. When technology fails, an airline-initiated ground stop is a methodical and deliberate solution, or the “lesser of two evils.”
SkyWest’s headquarters and OCC are co-located in Saint George, Utah. The carrier also has a backup facility in the same area if the primary OCC is crippled for any reason. United Airlines experienced a similar disruption just last month when the world’s largest commercial jet fleet was brought to its by an IT outage as well.
The ground halt stops a snowball of cancellations, delays, and diverted aircraft from unfolding. This enables the airline to address the issue before it brings down the network altogether, causing more serious and longer-lasting problems. Bringing the fleet to a halt facilitates system recovery by giving the OCC time to check its system is ready to go back into service and gradually resume flights.
The Risk Of Airline IT Outages
Southwest Airlines’ 2022 IT failure was a worst-case example of how tech vulnerability can devastate an airline. The timing couldn’t have been worse. During the Christmas travel week, the airline’s ability to task crews and assign aircraft systemically broke down. When it was over, America’s leading low-cost carrier (LCC) had failed to deliver nearly 2 million holiday travelers to their intended destinations on time.
Timeline of events during 
Southwest Airlines 2022 Christmas Meltdown:
|
Time |
Event |
|---|---|
|
December 21: |
Winter Storm Elliott strikes many Eastern US hubs. All airlines at airports in the storm’s path experienced cancellations and delays. |
|
December 22–29: |
A cascading failure occurred when Southwest’s scheduling program, SkySolver, was unable to manage widespread cancellations. Systemic collapse left crew members stranded and jets grounded. |
|
December 26: |
The crisis climaxes. While other major airlines were recovering, Southwest canceled more than 70% of its flights on this one day alone. |
|
December 30: |
The process of recovery starts. In order to bring operations mostly back on track, Southwest drastically reduced its schedule and started a laborious, manual recovery procedure that took days. |
Decades of underinvestment created network vulnerabilities, poor communication and caused major customer service failures. Southwest was fined $140 million by the Department of Transportation (DOT) for its failure to provide timely flight updates to customers, proper service, and timely refunds.
Public outrage followed the catastrophe, which seriously tarnished Southwest’s reputation for dependability and customer-friendly service. Southwest is now subject to compliance audits after the DOT mandated the development of a multi-year, $1.3 billion plan to update its systems, as CNN reported.