Sept 12 (Reuters) - Alaska Air Group ( ALK ) raised its

third-quarter profit forecast on Thursday, benefiting from

strong summer travel demand and re-bookings from passengers

stranded due to flight cancellations caused by a global cyber

outage in July.

The cyber outage caused by a software update from

cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) forced multiple airlines

to halt flight operations while leaving thousands of passengers

stranded across the nation.

However, it also benefited airlines who were not heavily

impacted and led to a flurry of re-bookings from affected

travelers.

Alaska Air's ( ALK ) shares were up 1.6% in premarket trading.

Major U.S. carriers have also experienced strong demand

throughout the summer travel season that has helped them boost

revenues.

Last week, peer JetBlue raised its third-quarter revenue

forecast, citing a benefit from outage-related re-bookings.

Alaska Air ( ALK ) now expects its current-quarter profit per share

to be in the range of $2.15 to $2.25, compared with the

airline's previous forecast of $1.40 to $1.60.

The airline also forecast lower fuel costs for the quarter

through September owing to moderating prices of jet fuel.