Delta CEO expects delays to last for days, cancels 800 flights
US carrier Delta Air Lines CEO says recovery from last week's global cyber outage will drag on for days as hundreds more flights are cancelled, stranding thousands of passengers for the fourth day in a row.
Image by Megan Varner | Reuters
US carrier Delta Air Lines CEO says recovery from last week's global cyber outage will drag on for days as hundreds more flights are canceled, stranding thousands of passengers for the fourth day in a row.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian put out a video statement to employees addressing the current recovery efforts after the company was forced to cancel another 800 flights on Monday.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, that puts the total number of Delta flights canceled at more than 4,000, or nearly 30%, since cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike pushed out an update last Thursday, causing over 8.5 million Windows systems to crash worldwide.
“We’ve got everyone around the company working around the clock to get this operation where it needs to be,” Bastian said in his message.
The CEO urged his employees to “keep taking great care of our customers and each other in the coming days.”
According to flight tracker FlightAware the amount is equivalent to about half of the entire number of flight cancellations for the day.
Although several major airlines, including American and United, also experienced massive delays and cancellations on Friday, those issues have seemed to have largely subsided for other carriers in the US.
Recovery will drag on for days
Bastion also said it will take the Atlanta-based carrier another few days before its operations fully recover. "Today will be a better day than yesterday and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again," he said.
Chief information officer Rahul Samant, who also appeared on the video, provided an update on the technical side of the restoration efforts, explaining that about 60% of Delta’s most critical applications are Microsoft Windows-based, and therefore had been rendered inoperable on Friday.
The CrowdStrike fix unfortunately is more complex (for all companies affected) and requires an IT member to manually repair and reboot each of the affected systems.
Once rebooted, the systems need additional time for the applications to synchronize and start communicating with each other, Delta said.
The most critical and “deeply complex” system contributing to the most lag time is Delta’s crew tracker application – which ensures all flights have a full crew in the right place at the right time – requires “the most time and manual support to synchronize,” Delta explained.
"Everything except that critical system is up and running," Samant said. "And that is what we're working on feverishly."
Delta further warned customers on Sunday its Fly Delta app was experiencing its own outages due to the thousands of customers attempting to monitor and change itineraries.
“These tools have been inundated with traffic, causing intermittent performance challenges. We’re aware & working to stabilize them,” Delta posted on X.
While you can monitor & manage your itineraries on https://t.co/ucHTQyoaiR or the Fly Delta app, these tools have been inundated with traffic, causing intermittent performance challenges. We’re aware & working to stabilize them. 4/8
undefined Delta (@Delta) July 21, 2024
Customers left stranded
Bastian said because the outage happened to take place on “the busiest travel weekend of the summer,” the ability to reschedule passengers on alternate flights has been limited.
This left tens of thousands of Delta passengers waiting hours to speak with the airline’s overwhelmed helpline. Others, unable to wait days for a new flight, were forced to rent cars and drive hundreds of miles to get to their destinations.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg reported hundreds of complaints filed with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) about “continued disruptions and unacceptable customer service conditions” from Delta customers, which the airline also addressed Monday on its website update.
"No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent," the Secretary posted on X.
“I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections,” he wrote.
No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent. If any airline fails to honor its customer service requirements, let us know: https://t.co/Noj5A5hE8w
undefined Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 22, 2024
As urged by the DOT, Delta announced a no-fee one-time travel waiver for passengers booked from July 19th to 23rd and for any rebooking made on the same class by July 28th.
Alternatively, Delta is also offering a full refund upon request or eCredit for any unused flight, including Sky Milies or travel voucher.
Finally, the carrier said it would be covering eligible expenses, including providing meal vouchers, hotel accommodations where available and ground transportation.
"Thank you for your patience as we work through these issues, restore our operation and return to the reliability you expect," Delta concluded Monday’s update.