BTN News: Three days after a major computer glitch led to the cancellation of over 5,000 flights worldwide in a single day, the situation has largely returned to normal. However, Delta Airlines continues to face significant challenges.
Delta Airlines, based in Atlanta, had to cancel more than 1,000 flights on Monday alone, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service. This number includes both Delta’s mainline operations and its regional subsidiary, Endeavor, which operates under the Delta Connection brand. These cancellations made up more than half of all global flight cancellations on Monday and nearly three-quarters of all flights within the United States. While most airlines have resumed normal operations, Delta is still grappling with severe disruptions.
The recent cancellations add to Delta’s already troubling weekend, where it had to cancel 1,500 flights on Friday and nearly 3,000 over the weekend. The ripple effect of these cancellations has left tens of thousands of Delta passengers stranded, many of whom have been unable to find alternative flights. The scarcity of hotel rooms forced many to sleep in airports and spend hours on hold trying to reach Delta customer service.
Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, addressed the issue in a note to customers on Sunday, attributing the disruption to a software issue affecting their crew tracking system. He apologized for the inconvenience, explaining that their crew management software could not handle the unprecedented number of changes caused by the initial system outage. Bastian assured customers that Delta’s teams were working tirelessly to restore full functionality.
While the computer glitch caused by CrowdStrike affected systems across various airlines, Delta appears to be the only major airline experiencing such severe and prolonged issues with its crew scheduling software. The ongoing problems are evident at Delta’s hub at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where travelers like Nicole DaSilva, Tiffany Denlinger, and Melissa Levine have been stuck since Saturday. After an international trip to Athens, they faced continuous flight cancellations, leaving them uncertain about when they could return home to Tucson, Arizona.
As of Monday morning, Delta’s critical crew tracking system had not yet been fully restored. In a video message to staff, Delta’s CIO, Rahul Samant, expressed optimism about resolving the issue soon but acknowledged ongoing challenges. He highlighted the relentless efforts of Delta’s IT team, working around the clock to fix the problem. The current system requires crew members to manually input their nearest airport code and current status, which complicates scheduling and delays.
Despite these setbacks, Delta is attempting to compensate its crew members with extra pay and guarantees for their return flights home, measures expected to remain in place until at least Friday. The airline has not commented on these offers, which suggest that the resolution of crew scheduling issues may still take several days.
The fallout from the flight disruptions has been exacerbated by the busy summer travel season. Delta’s CEO noted that the technological issue coincided with the highest travel weekend of the summer, with booking loads exceeding 90%, severely limiting rebooking options. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, has also intervened, emphasizing the need for Delta to promptly refund passengers who choose not to rebook and to provide free rebookings, meal vouchers, and hotel accommodations for those affected by delays and cancellations.
Delta has pledged to continue offering meal vouchers, hotel accommodations, and transportation where available. Additionally, as a gesture of goodwill, the airline is providing affected customers with Delta SkyMiles and travel vouchers.
Delta’s current struggles mirror those faced by Southwest Airlines during the 2022 holiday season when nearly 17,000 flights were canceled over more than a week due to issues with their crew scheduling system. At that time, Southwest faced heavy criticism for its outdated system, prompting promises from executives to upgrade their technology.
This unprecedented IT failure, dubbed the “largest computer outage in history” by CrowdStrike, has impacted about 8.5 million Windows-operated computers globally. It disrupted hospital operations, package deliveries, and banking and retail transactions. Although CrowdStrike announced on Sunday that many affected computers were back online, restoring airline operations to normal is a more complex process. It involves not only fixing the computers but also repositioning crews and aircraft, which can take considerably longer.
In the words of Michael Boyd, an airline consultant, an airline’s operation is akin to a circulatory system. If disrupted, even briefly, it takes significantly longer to restore full functionality. Therefore, although the initial glitch may have been short-lived, the aftermath can linger for days as airlines work to reposition planes and personnel.
For now, Delta Airlines continues to face a challenging path to recovery, striving to restore normal operations and regain the trust of its passengers amid one of the busiest travel seasons of the year.
