Delta Airlines Faces Challenges in Recovery After IT Disruption

Delta Airlines faced major disruptions due to the CrowdStrike IT meltdown, resulting in over 3,500 flight cancellations over the weekend, with lingering chaos into the new week.

The airline continued to struggle, especially after Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg highlighted Delta’s issues on Sunday, as reported by FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.

Delta experienced delays in restoring operations, with Monday’s cancellations adding to the 1,300 flights canceled on Sunday, along with additional delays over the weekend.

Compared to Delta’s challenges, American Airlines and United Airlines had around 50 combined cancellations by Monday as they worked towards recovery.

In a public statement to customers, Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized for the disruptions and attributed the issue to a computer program affecting its “crew tracking” software. This led to difficulty processing the high number of changes caused by the outage.

Bastian emphasized that canceling flights was a last resort and a decision taken very seriously by the airline.

The IT problems faced by Delta echoed those of Southwest Airlines during the 2022 holiday travel season, showing how a single point of failure could lead to widespread disruptions.

Lina Khan, Federal Trade Commission commissioner, highlighted the vulnerabilities in various industries where a system-wide outage could result from one glitch, impacting millions of customers and businesses.

Delta passengers expressed frustration over the ongoing disruptions, despite the airline’s efforts to manage the situation. Passengers affected by the delays and cancellations are offered travel waivers for flights booked from July 19-21.

However, the high volume of affected passengers overwhelmed Delta’s customer service, leading to challenges in providing timely assistance and refunds. Government officials, including Buttigieg, have urged Delta to offer prompt refunds, free rebooking, and assistance to affected passengers.

The CrowdStrike glitch, a significant IT failure, impacted 8.5 million computers globally. The cybersecurity firm reported that a software update affecting Microsoft’s Windows operating system played a role in the disruption, crucial for airlines’ functions like reservations and flight scheduling.