Travelers wait in line at a Delta Air Lines counter at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on July 19, 2024. Companies have experienced disruptions on an unprecedented scale.
Shen Ting/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Delta Airlines Chief Executive Ed Bastian apologized to travelers for hundreds of flight cancellations and offered frequent flyer miles as the airline works to recover from the pandemic. Global IT outage on Fridaythe disruption prompted criticism from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The Atlanta-based airline canceled more than 4,600 flights from Friday to Sunday, more than any other airline, according to aviation data firm OAG.
As of early Monday, Delta had canceled another 550 flights, or 15% of its mainline flights.
Delays and cancellations put Delta in rare spotlight for airline Their leaders pride themselves on being reliable and punctual.
“We continue to receive reports of unacceptable disruptions and customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints to our department,” Buttigieg said in an emailed statement Sunday evening. “I “We have made it clear to Delta that we expect the airline to promptly provide refunds to passengers who choose to cancel their trips due to flight disruptions” and “promptly reimburse consumers affected by delays and cancellations for food and overnight hotel accommodations,” As well as providing adequate customer service assistance to all passengers. “
Delta’s service disruptions persist while most other airlines have resumed. American airlines By Saturday it was basically back to normal.
“I would like to apologize to everyone affected by these events,” Bastian said in a letter to customers. “Delta is committed to connecting the world, and we understand it can be frustrating when your travel is disrupted. How difficult.”
An employee memo on Sunday said the airline was offering extra pay to flight attendants to cover shifts. The operator called some of them on private phones to come in, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bastian said in the report that high demand during the busiest period of the summer has forced airlines to find alternative flights for affected passengers.
United Airlines Flight disruptions also increased on Sunday, with 9%, or 260 flights, of its schedule canceled, according to FlightAware, still less than Delta.
Delta Air Lines has several Microsoft “In particular, one of our crew tracking related tools was affected and was unable to effectively handle the unprecedented volume changes caused by the system shutdown,” Bastian said in the report.
This will make the event similar to a question Southwest Airlines suffer at Larger scaleAt the end of 2022, the company failed to recover from severe winter weather for several consecutive days.
Cybersecurity company’s software update fails mass strike Incidents that brought down some Windows-based programs also affected the banking and healthcare industries.
