Travelers line up at a Delta Airlines counter at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on July 19, 2024. Airlines around the world experienced unprecedented disruption after a widespread global computer outage grounded planes and caused chaos at airports.
Ting Sheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Delta Airlines Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian apologized for thousands of canceled flights and offered frequent flyer rewards to travelers as the airline struggled to recover from a global IT outage on Friday that drew criticism from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The Atlanta-based airline canceled more than 4,600 flights from Friday through Sunday, more than any other airline, according to aviation data firm OAG.
Delta had already canceled 900 flights, or 23% of its mainline routes, by Monday evening, according to flight tracking site FlightAware, accounting for the majority of the day’s domestic cancellations.
The delays and cancellations have put Delta in the spotlight, an unusual move for a company that prides itself on reliability and punctuality and markets itself as a premium airline.
“It’s probably going to be a few more days before we can say that the worst is clearly over,” Bastian said in an internal video interview Monday.
He said he spoke with Buttigieg on Sunday.
“We continue to receive reports of unacceptable disruptions and customer service conditions at Delta, including hundreds of complaints filed with the Department of Aviation,” Buttigieg said in an email late Sunday. “I have made it clear to Delta that I expect them to promptly provide refunds to passengers who canceled trips due to the disruptions, provide timely refunds for meals and hotel accommodations to consumers affected by delays and cancellations, and provide appropriate customer service assistance to all passengers.”
While most other airlines have recovered, Delta remains in turmoil. American Airlines He said things were largely back to normal by Saturday. United Airlines Flight disruptions were significant on Sunday, with 260 flights canceled, or 9% of the schedule, according to FlightAware, but that’s still less than Delta.
“I want to apologize to each and every one of you who have been affected by these events,” Bastian said in a message to customers over the weekend.
The airline paid flight attendants extra pay to cover shifts, according to a staff memo on Sunday. The airline asked some flight attendants to come to work by personal phone calls, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. High demand during the busiest summer period forced the airline to find alternative flights for affected travelers, Bastian said in the memo.
Raymond James analyst Savanti Sis predicted Sunday that Delta Air Lines will take a financial hit of more than $160 million.
Delta has: Microsoft Among the tools affected by the outage, “one tool in particular related to crew tracking was impacted and was unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes caused by the outage,” Bastian said in the memo.
It will be a similar event to the problem Southwest Airlines At the end of 2022, it suffered far greater damage after not being able to recover for days from severe winter weather.
Cybersecurity companies fail to update software Crowdstrike The attack, which paralyzed some Windows-based programs, also hit the banking and healthcare industries.
