Airplanes are designed to withstand a lightning strike, but this one sounds like it was pretty bad.
23.07.2024 - 20:22 / thepointsguy.com / Pete Buttigieg / Ed Bastian
The Biden administration is opening up an investigation into Delta Air Lines as the carrier's operational meltdown stretched to a fifth day of mass cancellations in the wake of an IT outage affecting industries worldwide on Friday.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Consumer Protections is looking into the airline's "continued widespread flight disruptions," and "reports of concerning customer service failures," the agency said Tuesday morning.
That revelation comes as the Atlanta-based carrier has canceled 1,100 flights daily — or more — on four straight days from Friday through Monday.
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On Tuesday, Delta had already canceled 442 additional flights as of 10:30 a.m. EDT, according to data from flight-tracking site FlightAware. That's about 12% of its operation. Flight cancellation totals on each of those days have mounted as the day has gone on, perhaps a foreboding sign for Tuesday's travelers.
More broadly, the disruptions have led to chaotic scenes at airports across the country, particularly at Delta's home base, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
Frustrated passengers, long lines for customer service and images of travelers resting on airport concourse floors have been commonplace in recent days.
"We have made clear to Delta that they must take care of their passengers and their customer service commitments," said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in announcing the investigation Tuesday, which "will continue to evolve," the department said, as it processes a high volume of consumer complaints.
Several U.S. airlines and many more globally were affected by Friday's IT glitch at Austin-based CrowdStrike, which caused major problems for Microsoft clients.
However, Delta's problems have snowballed even as other U.S. carriers recovered.
Delta has canceled more than 5,000 flights since Friday, per FlightAware data. Its cancellation rate has regularly topped 30% in recent days, far exceeding the 0.3% of flights it had previously canceled in 2024.
In an update Monday, CEO Ed Bastian noted nearly half of the carrier's global IT systems are Windows based, and required Delta staff to manually repair and reboot each machine, "with additional time needed for applications to synchronize and start communicating with each other."
The problems have caused particular problems with Delta's critical crew-scheduling system, that helps the airline get crews to the right place at the right time.
U.S. travelers know all too well how significantly crew scheduling software outages can affect air travel. Southwest Airlines' holiday 2022 meltdown was greatly exacerbated by problems with its crew
Airplanes are designed to withstand a lightning strike, but this one sounds like it was pretty bad.
CrowdStrike has responded assertively to Delta Air Lines after the carrier’s CEO, Ed Bastian, accused the cybersecurity firm of being responsible for a service disruption that allegedly cost Delta $500 million.
My oldest son has a lot of big dreams.
The Olympics are big business. Alongside broadcasting rights, merchandising, and ticket sales, corporate sponsorship plays a vital revenue-generating role. However, from a travel perspective, Airbnb is the only company currently in the International Olympic Committee’s TOP – or ‘The Olympic Partners’ – Program.
They are scenes straight out of a travel nightmare: Airline passengers, including unaccompanied minors, stranded for days in strange cities amid a cascading wave of flight cancellations—with little hope of catching a plane home in a hurry.
Delta Air Lines has offered its most substantial assistance to passengers yet following the IT outage that canceled thousands of flights last week.
Delta Air Lines has been in the spotlight of the airline industry this week following a five-day-long operational meltdown that led to more than 5,000 flight cancellations and stranded passengers and their checked bags for days.
Delta Air Lines says its operations are getting back on track, signaling the likely end of a multi-day meltdown that's seen the carrier cancel more than 5,000 flights since an IT outage on Friday.
Delta's flight disruptions have continued as hundreds of flights were canceled and delayed on Tuesday, which has now led to the Department of Transportation to open an investigation into the airline.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, July 23, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Delta Air Lines canceled around 20% of its schedule on Monday as it grapples with lingering flight disruptions that were caused by a major IT outage.
Cancellations at Delta Air Lines continue to pile up more than 72 hours after an IT outage affecting industries around the world first disrupted travel Friday.