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Alaska Airlines began resuming normal flight operations after a technology issue led to a temporary grounding of its aircraft nationwide. The carrier requested that federal regulators halt operations early Wednesday after experiencing an “issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance,” it said in a statement. The grounding, which affected all mainline operations and those of its Horizon subsidiary, lasted for about an hour. Accurate weight and balance calculations are a crucial element in safe flight operations and must be established before aircraft depart. Alaska said it mitigated the issue but expects “residual delays” to last throughout the day. The US FAA, which issued a notice of the ground stop online, confirmed that operations had returned to normal. The disruption, coming about three months after a mid-flight safety problem with a Boeing Co. plane upended Alaska’s operations, recalls a similar ground stop issued in September for United Airlines Holdings Inc. flights after a software update caused a “widespread slowdown” in the carrier’s technology systems. In early 2023, an FAA system outage forced a nationwide grounding of aircraft.<br/>

Malaysia Airlines will temporarily stop carrying cargo on its passenger flights from Kuala Lumpur to London after Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend forced airlines to make lengthy detours. The Malaysian flag carrier will reroute flights to avoid airspace over parts of the Middle East, requiring more fuel and spurring the need to lighten its load. The measure will be in place between April 17 and 30, it said in a statement to Bloomberg News. The change is one of the more drastic measures taken by an airline as the industry grapples with the fallout, and cost, of Iran’s missile and drone attack that saw several Middle Eastern countries temporarily close their airspace. Qantas Airways Ltd., Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Air France are among major carriers forced to draw up alternative plans that have complicated travel itineraries and led to longer flight times. Malaysia’s national carrier typically overflies Iran for its European flights. The new route will see a flight time of around 14 hours with planes heading over Central Asia toward Turkey and sidestepping Iran. While regional airspace has subsequently reopened and airlines have outlined plans to resume services to places like Beirut and Tel Aviv, tensions between Israel and Iran continue to simmer. Malaysia Air’s cautious approach comes a decade after one of its jets was downed over eastern Ukraine en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. <br/>