Travelers wait in line outside a Delta Air Lines 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 British Airways chief executive Ed Bastian has apologized and offered frequent flyer miles to passengers for canceling thousands of flights as the airline struggled to recover from a global IT outage on Friday, disruptions 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.
By Monday evening, Delta had already canceled another 900 flights, or 23% of its mainline operations, accounting for most of the day's cancellations in the United States, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
The delays and cancellations have put a spotlight on Delta, whose leaders pride themselves on reliability and punctuality, and who market the airline as a premium carrier.
“It will take another couple of days before we are in a position to say the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian said in an internal video interview on Monday.
He said he spoke to Secretary of State Buttigieg on Sunday.
“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 late Sunday. “I have made it clear to Delta that we expect the airline to provide immediate refunds” to customers who chose to cancel their flights due to disruptions as well as “timely compensation for food and overnight hotel accommodations for consumers affected by delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance to all of its passengers.”
Delta's troubles continue while most other airlines recover. American Airlines He said things were almost back to normal by Saturday. United Airlines Delta Air Lines saw increased flight disruptions on Sunday with 9% of its schedule, or 260 flights, canceled, according to FlightAware, but still fewer than Delta.
“I want to apologize to each and every one of you who were affected by these events,” Bastian said in a message to customers over the weekend.
A memo to employees on Sunday said the airline was offering flight attendants extra pay to work shifts. The company called some on their personal phones to come in, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Bastian said in his memo that high demand during one of the busiest summer periods challenged the airline to find alternative flights for affected passengers.
On Sunday, Raymond James analyst Savanthi Seth predicted that Delta could take a financial hit of more than $160 million.
Delta has a number of Microsoft “One of our staff tracking tools was impacted and was unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes caused by the system shutdown,” Bastian said in his memo.
This would make the event similar to a problem. Southwest Airlines The region suffered the effects of severe winter weather on a much larger scale at the end of 2022 when it failed to recover for several days.
Failed software update from cybersecurity company Crowd Strike The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has crippled some Windows operating system software, and has also affected the banking and healthcare sectors.
