Delta Air Lines has faced a fourth consecutive day of challenges as it attempts to recover from a global technology outage, which stemmed from a flawed software update. This issue has stranded tens of thousands of passengers and attracted scrutiny from the federal government.
The airline’s chief executive stated that it would take “another couple days” before “the worst is clearly behind us.” Delta’s chief information officer confirmed on Monday that efforts were ongoing to fix a crucial crew-scheduling program.
While other carriers have nearly returned to normal service levels, Delta’s slower response has drawn increased attention. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg discussed Delta’s high number of cancellations with CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday. Buttigieg reported receiving “hundreds of complaints” about Delta and expects the airline to provide accommodations and quick refunds for affected travelers.
“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” Buttigieg said, promising to enforce air-travel consumer-protection rules.
In a video message to employees, Bastian acknowledged Buttigieg’s concerns, stressing that Delta aims to care for its customers, especially during challenging times.
Since the onset of the outage on Friday morning, Delta has canceled over 5,500 flights, including at least 700 on Monday, as per aviation-data provider Cirium. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of all flight cancellations worldwide on Monday.
United Airlines has been the second-most affected, with nearly 1,500 flights canceled, though it managed to cancel only 17 flights by late Monday morning.
Other airlines impacted by the initial outage—such as American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and Allegiant Air—had largely resumed normal operations by Monday.
Bastian informed customers on Sunday that the airline was working to restore operations disrupted by the outage. The system responsible for tracking crews was hit particularly hard and could not handle the volume of changes precipitated by the outage.
“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our re-accommodation capabilities,” Bastian explained. Booked loads refer to the percentage of sold seats on each flight.
Airlines’ extensive and layered technology systems often include older crew-tracking programs. The outage also disrupted systems for passenger check-ins and vital pre-flight calculations, contributing to brief groundings by United and American Airlines.
Certain airlines, including Southwest and Alaska, do not use CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity software provider whose faulty upgrade triggered the global outages. These airlines experienced relatively few cancellations.
Delta disclosed that “upward of half” its IT systems are Windows-based. The technology outage required IT staff to manually repair and reboot affected systems and synchronize various applications.
“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that … the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian reiterated to employees on Monday. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”
Delta’s Chief Information Officer, Rahul Samant, revealed in a video message that two applications were especially difficult to restart: one managing traffic at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s largest hub, and another for scheduling pilots and flight attendants.
Technicians had managed to reboot the crew-scheduling program, but new issues continued to arise, Samant said.
Delta, headquartered in Atlanta, is offering waivers to simplify rescheduling for customers. This was small consolation for travelers like fitness coach Jason Helmes, who faced repeated delays and cancellation of his Sunday flight from Denver to Detroit.
“Everyone was just stranded. No information on hotels. No information on what to do next,” Helmes recounted. He eventually found his luggage among thousands of unclaimed bags but declined Delta’s offer to rebook him on Wednesday, opting instead for a Tuesday flight on Frontier Airlines. He plans to save all receipts for reimbursement hopes.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve been exclusively on Delta,” Helmes said, reconsidering his loyalty after this experience.
Delta’s troubles bring to mind Southwest Airlines’ December 2022 crisis, where nearly 17,000 flights were canceled due to a crew-scheduling issue, sparking a federal probe and resulting in a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement with the Transportation Department.
The current airline industry turbulence is part of broader tech problems triggered by CrowdStrike’s software update, impacting 8.5 million machines worldwide according to Microsoft. Although CrowdStrike has deployed a fix, experts warn that repairing all affected systems could take days or even weeks.
