Alaska Airlines’ IT outage could cost it $26 million

An IT outage that grounded Alaska Airlines’ fleet for eight hours last week and canceled about 400 flights may cost the company $26 million.

Savanthi Syth, an airline analyst with financial services company Raymond James, estimated the outage would trim about 15 cents from Alaska’s earnings per share, or about $26 million from its pretax income for the fourth quarter.

A similar IT outage in July that grounded Alaska’s fleet for three hours and canceled 200 flights cut about 10 cents from Alaska’s earnings per share, or about $17 million, Syth said.

“It has been a string of bad news for Alaska,” Syth wrote in a note to investors following the IT outage last week, pointing to the tech trouble and several other macroeconomic factors, like rising fuel prices and changes to immigration visa