IT outage causes widespread flight cancellations for Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines is facing continued struggles to restore normal operations following a global cyber outage that occurred last week. The Atlanta-based airline has had to cancel approximately 1,000 flights in addition to the 3,500 flights already scrapped. This has led to chaos for thousands of Delta travelers across the country, with some having to resort to renting cars or facing significant delays in finding alternative flights.

The ongoing operational problems faced by Delta are a result of the outage’s impact on its crew tracking system. Despite other U.S. airlines largely recovering, Delta has been unable to return to normal operations. United Airlines, for instance, canceled 9% of its flights on Sunday, which was the second-highest number among carriers.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian explained that the issue primarily affected the airline’s Microsoft Windows systems, causing disruptions to a critical application related to crew tracking. He reassured customers that Delta is working on resolving the problem and will make tactical adjustments to ensure the safety of their operations.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently spoke with Bastian to emphasize the carrier’s responsibilities to its customers and remind Delta of the department’s enforcement role in such situations. Meanwhile, global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, whose software update triggered the system problems for Microsoft customers including airlines, reported that a significant number of impacted devices are back online.

Despite these challenges, Delta has not provided a specific timeline for when normal operations will resume. The airline has already canceled 137 flights for Monday, adding to the frustration of travelers affected by the ongoing disruptions.