Delta Air Lines continues to struggle for a fourth consecutive day following the CrowdStrike tech outage, which most airlines have already recovered from. Delta’s CEO announced it would take “another couple days” to overcome the worst of the disruptions, while the airline’s CIO revealed on Monday that they are still working on repairing a critical crew-scheduling program.
While other airlines are nearing normal operations, Delta’s slower recovery has highlighted its challenges. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg contacted Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday regarding the high number of cancellations since Friday. Buttigieg mentioned that his agency received “hundreds of complaints” about Delta and expects the airline to provide accommodations for delayed travelers and issue prompt refunds for those opting not to be rebooked.
In a video for employees, Bastian assured, “You do not need to remind me. I know, because we do our very best, particularly in tough times, taking care of our customers.”
Delta has canceled over 5,500 flights since the outage began early Friday, including at least 700 on Monday, according to aviation-data provider Cirium. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of worldwide cancellations on Monday, most of which were in the United States.
United Airlines has been the second-most affected, canceling nearly 1,500 flights since the outage began, but only 17 on Monday by late morning.
Airlines such as Southwest and Alaska, which do not use CrowdStrike, faced relatively few cancellations. Delta, however, reported that “upward of half” its IT systems are Windows-based, necessitating manual repairs and reboots of each system by IT staff.
“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that… the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian told employees on Monday. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”
Delta CIO Rahul Samant added that restarting two key applications was particularly challenging on Friday: one managing traffic at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s largest hub, and another assigning pilots and flight attendants to flights.
Technicians managed to get the crew-scheduling program running but still have a backlog to address, with new issues continuing to emerge, Samant said.
Delta is offering waivers to ease the rescheduling of trips, but this provided little relief for travelers like Jason Helmes, a fitness coach trying to return to Detroit from Denver. His Sunday flight was delayed three times before being canceled, and when the plane finally left the gate, the pilots had reached the end of their legally allowed shift.
“Everyone was just stranded. No information on hotels. No information on what to do next,” Helmes said. “They said, ‘Go down to the luggage carousel, your luggage should be there.’ There were thousands of bags down there. I found my luggage — I got lucky.”
Helmes said Delta offered to rebook him for Wednesday, but he booked a Tuesday flight on Frontier Airlines instead, saving his receipts, including for a hotel room, hoping Delta will reimburse him.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve been exclusively on Delta,” he said. “This has me double-thinking about that.”
Delta’s meltdown mirrors the December 2022 incident when Southwest Airlines canceled nearly 17,000 flights over 15 days. Following a federal investigation, Southwest agreed to a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement with the Transportation Department.
Southwest’s issues began during a winter storm but were prolonged by a crew-scheduling system failure, similar to Delta’s current situation.
The airline industry is one of the most visible victims of the global tech issues caused by CrowdStrike’s faulty software update. Microsoft reported the glitch affected 8.5 million machines. CrowdStrike claims to have deployed a fix, but experts warn it could take days or weeks to repair all affected computers.
While other airlines are nearing normal operations, Delta’s slower recovery has highlighted its challenges. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg contacted Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday regarding the high number of cancellations since Friday. Buttigieg mentioned that his agency received “hundreds of complaints” about Delta and expects the airline to provide accommodations for delayed travelers and issue prompt refunds for those opting not to be rebooked.
In a video for employees, Bastian assured, “You do not need to remind me. I know, because we do our very best, particularly in tough times, taking care of our customers.”
Delta has canceled over 5,500 flights since the outage began early Friday, including at least 700 on Monday, according to aviation-data provider Cirium. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of worldwide cancellations on Monday, most of which were in the United States.
United Airlines has been the second-most affected, canceling nearly 1,500 flights since the outage began, but only 17 on Monday by late morning.
Airlines such as Southwest and Alaska, which do not use CrowdStrike, faced relatively few cancellations. Delta, however, reported that “upward of half” its IT systems are Windows-based, necessitating manual repairs and reboots of each system by IT staff.
“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that… the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian told employees on Monday. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”
Delta CIO Rahul Samant added that restarting two key applications was particularly challenging on Friday: one managing traffic at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s largest hub, and another assigning pilots and flight attendants to flights.
Technicians managed to get the crew-scheduling program running but still have a backlog to address, with new issues continuing to emerge, Samant said.
Delta is offering waivers to ease the rescheduling of trips, but this provided little relief for travelers like Jason Helmes, a fitness coach trying to return to Detroit from Denver. His Sunday flight was delayed three times before being canceled, and when the plane finally left the gate, the pilots had reached the end of their legally allowed shift.
“Everyone was just stranded. No information on hotels. No information on what to do next,” Helmes said. “They said, ‘Go down to the luggage carousel, your luggage should be there.’ There were thousands of bags down there. I found my luggage — I got lucky.”
Helmes said Delta offered to rebook him for Wednesday, but he booked a Tuesday flight on Frontier Airlines instead, saving his receipts, including for a hotel room, hoping Delta will reimburse him.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve been exclusively on Delta,” he said. “This has me double-thinking about that.”
Delta’s meltdown mirrors the December 2022 incident when Southwest Airlines canceled nearly 17,000 flights over 15 days. Following a federal investigation, Southwest agreed to a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement with the Transportation Department.
Southwest’s issues began during a winter storm but were prolonged by a crew-scheduling system failure, similar to Delta’s current situation.
The airline industry is one of the most visible victims of the global tech issues caused by CrowdStrike’s faulty software update. Microsoft reported the glitch affected 8.5 million machines. CrowdStrike claims to have deployed a fix, but experts warn it could take days or weeks to repair all affected computers.