Travelers wait in line at a Delta Airlines check-in counter at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on July 19, 2024. Airlines around the world experienced disruptions on an unprecedented scale after a widespread global computer outage grounded planes and created chaos at airports.
Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Ed Bastian apologized and offered frequent-flyer miles to travelers for thousands of flight cancellations as the airline struggled to recover from Friday's global IT outage — disruptions that drew criticism from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The Atlanta-based carrier canceled more than 4,600 flights from Friday to Sunday, more than any other airline, according to aviation data firm OAG.
By Monday morning, Delta had canceled another 700 flights, or 19% of its mainline operation, accounting for more than half of the cancellations in the United States, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
The delays and cancellations have put Delta in a special spotlight for the airline whose leaders pride themselves on reliability and punctuality.
“We continue to receive reports of unacceptable disruptions and customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints filed with our Department,” Buttigieg said in an emailed statement Sunday night. “I have made clear to Delta that we expect the airline to provide prompt refunds” to customers who decided to cancel their trips due to the disruptions, as well as “timely refunds for food and hotel stays to consumers affected by the delays and cancellations, as well as appropriate customer service assistance to all of its passengers.”
Disruptions have persisted at Delta while most other airlines have recovered. American Airlines He said he was almost back to normal by Saturday. united airlines had elevated flight disruptions on Sunday, with 9% of its schedule canceled, or 260 flights, according to FlightAware, but still below Delta.
“I want to apologize to everyone who has been affected by these events,” Bastian said in a message to customers. “Delta is dedicated to connecting the world and we understand how difficult it can be when travel is disrupted.”
The airline was offering flight attendants extra pay to pick up shifts, according to a memo to staff released Sunday. The airline called some of them on their personal phones to come forward. According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, high demand during one of the busiest periods of the summer challenged the airline to find alternative flights for affected travelers, Bastian said in his note.
As of Sunday, research firm Raymond James was expecting a financial hit of more than $160 million for Delta.
Delta Air Lines has a number of Microsoft tools that were affected during the outage, “in particular, one of our crew tracking related tools was impacted and was unable to effectively process the unprecedented amount of changes brought on by the system shutdown,” Bastian said in his note.
That would make the event similar to a problem. Southwest Airlines suffered, on a much larger scale, in late 2022, when it failed to recover from severe winter weather for days.
A failed software update from a cybersecurity company Mass coup which paralyzed some Windows-based programs also affected the banking and healthcare industries.
