Delta CEO Apologizes for Ongoing Flight Disruptions Caused by IT Outage

Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized and offered frequent flyer miles to customers impacted by ongoing flight disruptions that were caused by an IT outage on Friday.

The carrier has been struggling to bounce back since the Friday outage. As of Saturday afternoon, Delta had the most flight disruptions of any airline, reporting 806 cancellations and nearly 1,600 delays, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

"I want to apologize to every one of you who have been impacted by these events," Bastian said in the note that was sent to customers on Sunday. "Delta is in the business of connecting the world, and we understand how difficult it can be when your travels are disrupted."

Bastian said the outage occurred during Delta's "busiest travel weekend of the summer" and the carrier's booking loads exceeded 90%, making it difficult to re-accommodate impacted passengers.

He added that the technology issue impacted Delta's Microsoft Windows operating systems. The carrier has a number of applications that rely on Microsoft, and in particular, its crew scheduling system was unable to process an unprecedented number of changes caused by Friday's outage, Bastian said.

Delta has issued travel waivers, meal vouchers, hotel accommodations and transportation to those who have been impacted by the disruptions.

The IT outage on Friday that triggered a global airline meltdown was traced to cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. The firm issued a software update that led to crashes in systems that rely on Microsoft Windows.

American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines were the hardest hit from the outage. American said on Saturday that its operation was mostly restored and reported minimal disruptions on Sunday. United tallied 260 cancellations and 347 delays as of Sunday afternoon.