Delta Airlines Chief Executive Ed Bastian said Wednesday that a massive IT outage earlier this month that left thousands of customers stranded will cost the company $500 million.
Bastian said the figure includes not only lost revenue but “tens of millions of dollars in compensation and restaurant losses per day” over five days. The amount was broadly in line with analysts’ estimates. Delta did not disclose exactly how many refund and reimbursement requests it processed, but a spokesperson said the number was in the “thousands.”
The airline has canceled more than 5,000 flights since July 25, more than in all of 2019. mass strike Software updates took thousands of times Microsoft Systems around the world are offline. Bastian said the company had to manually reset 40,000 servers.
After the outage, Delta’s platform for matching crews to aircraft couldn’t keep up with changes, leading to further confusion.
This question is similar to Southwest Airlines customer The company struggled due to severe weather during the 2022 year-end holiday period.
Other airlines recover faster from CrowdStrike issues, Delta’s cascading outages and customer response spark investigation By the U.S. Department of Transportation. The collapse is rare for an airline that has positioned itself as an air transport company. premium airline Among U.S. airlines, its profitability and on-time performance are among the best.
Bastien was traveling in Paris last week and told CNBC:scream boxOn Wednesday, the airline will seek damages for the disruption, adding: “We have no choice.”
“If you want to be a priority in the Delta ecosystem on the technology side, you have to test these things. You can’t tell us we have a bug while we’re operating mission-critical 24/7 operations,” Bastian said.
So far, Bastian added, CrowdStrike has not provided any financial assistance to Delta beyond providing free consulting advice on dealing with the impact of the outage. A CrowdStrike spokesperson said in an emailed statement that it was “unaware of the lawsuit and has no further comment.” Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
delta Hire a reputable lawyer David Boies will seek damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft, CNBC reported earlier this week. Boyce is best known for representing the U.S. government in its landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.
“We have to protect our shareholders. We have to protect our customers, our employees and prevent losses, not just cost losses but brand reputation losses,” Bastian said.
—CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.
