Why Is Delta Still Struggling After Last Week’s IT Outage?

While most airlines have now returned to normal operations following last week’s global IT outage that grounded thousands of flights, Delta Air Lines has struggled to recover as quickly as its competitors and has continued to cancel thousands of flights across its network, with the disruption expected to last for a few days yet.

The mass outage, caused by a failed update of CrowdStrike software that affected Microsoft systems worldwide, caused more than 5,000 flights to be canceled across the globe on Friday, July 19, with many more delayed. Almost every major airline was affected to some extent, although many have completely recovered and are back to running their networks as normal.

Photo: Delta, Boeing 767-300ER. Courtesy of Delta Air Lines

However, Delta has continued to struggle this week, canceling over a thousand flights each day since the outage, according to data from FlightAware. On Monday, the Atlanta-based carrier canceled 1,159 flights, representing 30 percent of its entire schedule, while a further 1,805, or 46 percent of its flights, were delayed.

The airline’s struggles have continued into Tuesday, with over 440 of its flights canceled as of 11 a.m. Eastern Time, and a further 590 delayed.

The carrier’s primary hub—Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)—has also been the most affected airport in the country, having the most canceled and delayed flights each day from Friday through to Tuesday.

According to the CEO of Delta, Ed Bastian, the airline has been particularly affected by the fact that its vital crew scheduling and tracking software has been affected and continues to be affected by the outage.

“One of our crew-tracking tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown,” he said in an open letter to the airline’s customers. “Our teams have been working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality.”

Photo: Ed Bastian, CEO Delta Air Lines. Courtesy of ©2023 Rank Studios

However, while Delta’s issues persist and its passengers are left stranded at airports throughout the U.S., the airline has issued an apology to its customers along with a travel waiver, allowing affected passengers to change their booking at no extra cost.

“We have issued a travel waiver to enable you to make a change to your itinerary at no charge,” said Bastian. “I encourage you to take advantage of that flexibility if possible. In addition, for those whose flights have been impacted, we continue to offer meal vouchers, hotel accommodations and transportation where available. And as a gesture of apology, we’re also providing impacted customers with Delta SkyMiles and travel vouchers.”

That does not appear to be enough for Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who announced on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday morning that the Department of Transportation has opened an investigation “to ensure [Delta Air Lines] is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions.” The move follows days of criticism from the Secretary. “All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld,” he added.

The aviation director of Business Traveler, Enrique Perrella, was stranded in Miami on Monday, July 23, when his Delta flight to Atlanta was delayed for 15 hours.

I made it. 15hrs behind schedule. And when I deplaned, I found a horrific scene at @ATLairport—an infinite line of frustrated passengers queuing up to chat with @Delta customer service.

Baggage claim was a war zone. Bags everywhere, carousels collapsed.

Delta, this is NOT fair. https://t.co/UX28RMgHKS pic.twitter.com/1k06x0CrTz

— Enrique Perrella (@Enrique77W) July 23, 2024

Perrella mentioned that despite the gracious and hardworking ground agents in Miami, they had little to no knowledge of when the flight was set to depart due to missing pilots and flight attendants. He stated, “Even though our aircraft arrived the night before our flight, we learned early in the morning that we only had four local flight attendants in Miami. Our pilots were in Atlanta.”

Perrella’s flight, which was supposed to depart at 8:30 a.m., took off from Miami at 10:45 p.m., arriving in Atlanta almost 15 hours behind schedule.