Delta's Meltdown Enters Day 4 After IT Outage

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. 

While its competitors like American Airlines and United Airlines have restored their operations since the July 19 outage, Delta has been canceling thousands of flights daily. The carrier is having trouble locating its crewmembers, which is causing the ongoing disruptions. 

CEO Ed Bastian told customers on Sunday that Delta’s crew scheduling system was unable to process an unprecedented number of changes caused by the IT outage. 

On Friday, an issue with a Crowdstrike software update caused systems that rely on Microsoft Windows to crash, affecting a variety of industries ranging from banking to healthcare. The issue also led to tens of thousands of flight disruptions on Friday, but most airlines have since bounced back. 

In an update posted Monday afternoon, Delta said the Crowdstrike error required it to manually reboot and repair each affected system. More than half of Delta's IT systems are Windows based, the carrier said.

The carrier said that its crew scheduling systems needed the most time to synchronize after the July 19 outage. Delta has not given a timeline yet on when it expects its operations to stabilize.

As of 3:34 p.m. ET, Delta had 816 flights canceled and around 1,300 delayed, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. The carrier had also canceled thousands of flights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Delta has long prided itself on its on-time performance and low cancellation rates. The carrier is also among the most profitable in the industry.

Delta is not the only airline to have struggled with software issues. Southwest Airlines struggled to restore its operations in 2022 after a winter storm — its crew scheduling system became too overwhelmed by the disruptions. 

Delta's Customer Service Under Scrutiny

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with Bastian on Sunday, the DOT said. Buttigieg reminded Bastian of the carrier’s responsibilities to passengers, the department said. 

In the letter to customers, Bastian said that Delta has offered travel waivers and was providing impacted customers with Delta SkyMiles. He also said that Delta has offered meal vouchers, hotel accommodations and transportation when applicable. 

However, a New York Times reporter posted on X that a Delta customer service agent told a passenger that the airline is not providing meal vouchers or hotel accommodations to passengers whose flights were canceled.

Buttigieg said in a series of posts on X on Sunday that the Department of Transportation received reports of “unacceptable customer service conditions.” He also said hundreds of complaints about the carrier had been filed with the DOT. 

The Transportations Secretary went on to say that Delta is required to provide refunds to passengers who don’t take a rebooked flight and has to reimburse for food and hotel stays. 

Under current DOT rules, airlines are required to provide meal vouchers if a cancellation or delay is at least three hours. Airlines also have to provide hotel accommodations and ground transportation for passengers affected by overnight delays or cancellations.

“I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections,” Buttigieg said on X.