Flight cancellations now at 6,500 since IT snafu; Delta and United struggling again Sunday

21.07.2024 - 16:40 / thepointsguy.com

Mass flight cancellations snarled U.S. airports for a third consecutive day Sunday, the lingering fallout after a Friday tech glitch affecting Microsoft Windows clients caused worldwide I.T. infrastructure outages— and upended many airline operations.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines again canceled hundreds of flights Sunday, as the two carriers continued to try recover their operations in the wake of the problems caused by a third-party vendor late last week.

The problems have led to packed terminals at airports across the country this weekend, with long, snaking lines of travelers waiting to speak to customer service common — and images of passengers sleeping on airport concourse floors.

Want more aviation news? Sign up for TPG's free biweekly Aviation newsletter.

By late morning Sunday, airlines had canceled more than 1,000 flights in the U.S.

Delta led the way with more than 500 cancellations Sunday – about 13% of its operation, according to data from flight-tracking site FlightAware. United was second, with 253 cancellations Sunday — about 8% of its schedule.

In all, airlines have canceled more than 6,500 flights in the U.S. since Friday's disruption — close to 3,000 of those on Delta, per FlightAware data.

In a statement Saturday, the Atlanta-based carrier said it was still in the process of getting operations back on track following the I.T. outage at Austin-based Crowdstrike, which caused it — and several other U.S. airlines — to temporarily pause flying on Friday.

Delta has extended its pause on unaccompanied minor flying through Tuesday (July 23) and extended travel waivers that allow passengers more flexibility to make itinerary changes — a step taken by other carriers, including United.

In its most recent update Saturday, United told TPG its customer service call systems had been fully restored, and noted most technology systems were back up and running — but warned of additional cancellations and delays likely over the course of the weekend.

U.S. flight cancellations on Saturday were down 37% from Friday, FlightAware data shows — but still topped 1,600 for the day, led by Delta's 1,200.

Key Delta and United hubs have been the most heavily affected U.S. airports this weekend, from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), Denver International Airport (DEN) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) — among others.

Though the issues stemmed from a third-party vendor, not the airlines directly, the U.S. Department of Transportation considers these cancellations and delays to be "controllable," — in other words, the airline's responsibility — an agency spokesperson told TPG Friday.

That means promises made by airlines