Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian speaks during a keynote address at CES 2020 in Las Vegas on January 7, 2020.
Bridget Bennett | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian on Friday offered employees two free travel passes to thank staff members who were caught up in massive outages last month caused by a bug Mass coup software update that left thousands of customers and crew stranded.
Delta had more trouble than its competitors recovering from outages that knocked thousands of Windows machines offline around the world, affecting industries from health care to banking.
The airline canceled more than 5,000 flights between July 19 and July 24, more than it canceled in all of 2019, according to FlightAware. Bastian said earlier this week that the incident cost the company about $500 million, a sum equal to about 40% of Delta’s second-quarter earnings. A crew-tracking platform contributed to the cancellations and disruptions, the airline said.
Delta told CNBC's “Squawk Box” on Wednesday that the airline had to manually reboot 40,000 servers.
The outage “has been a humbling moment for our company,” Bastian said in his Friday note, which was seen by CNBC. “I know it has been extremely difficult and I am deeply sorry for what you have had to endure. An operational disruption of this length and magnitude is simply unacceptable – you and our customers deserve better.”
More than 4,000 Delta flight attendants flew more than 6,100 trips during the disruptions and received additional pay, according to another Delta staff memo released Friday.
“Your efforts throughout have been nothing short of heroic,” Bastian told staff.
The two “positive space” passes Bastian offered employees are confirmed seats like a customer would have, different from the free standby flights airline employees typically book if seats are available.
Delta's organizing committee, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which is in the midst of a drive to unionize Delta flight attendants, said the pass offer “simply isn't going to cut it.” The organizing committee, in a written statement, said the airline's management routinely makes “meager adjustments to keep the operation running without making significant enough changes to prevent a future crisis.”
Delta's operations have since stabilized, but flight cancellations and delays stranded thousands of people and damaged the airline's high reliability. Delta executives frequently highlight Delta's successful work in winning over leisure and corporate customers who are willing to pay more to fly the airline by promoting itself as a premium carrier.
A Delta spokesperson said earlier this week that the airline has processed “thousands” of refunds and reimbursement requests.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating the Delta disruptions, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week. Similar disruptions at other airlines, such as the massive 2022 holiday collapse in Southwest Airlines Following the winter storms, they have highlighted how technological problems can seriously disrupt air travel.
Bastian said Delta plans to take legal action against CrowdStrike and Microsoft “to recover our losses caused by the blackout” and has hired the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner.
Microsoft declined to comment. CrowdStrike said it is “not aware of any lawsuit and will not comment further.”
