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An IT update from CrowdStrike pushed on Friday and wreaked havoc across airline, hotel, bank, and other businesses (more here). This led to widespread delays and cancellations with airlines unable to access to software for crew scheduling, customer service, and more. Most carriers have rebounded and are now pretty much operating as normal. The one major exception is Delta Air Lines. It is still struggling to get its footing even as we enter the fourth day since this IT snafu.
Yesterday, American Airlines cancelled 2% of its flights and Delta cancelled a staggering 36% of its schedule. This represented 1,380 cancellations. As of 7:00 AM EST today, Delta has already scrapped more than 615 flights with more expected to cancel as the day progresses. In contrast, American has cancelled 1% of its schedule and United 0%. Delta CEO, Ed Bastian, wrote an apology letter to customers yesterday saying that the airline continued recovering yesterday (not when you look at the numbers) and that this is still based on what happened on Friday.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 21, 2024
This no longer seems to be a viable excuse. Somewhere along the way, Delta lost track of its flight attendants and scheduling cannot get them where they need to be. It’s unknown why they can’t get this together as systems are back online. Additionally, Delta is calling for flight attendants to fill in and offering bonus pay, but the hold times to get through to crew scheduling are so long that it’s not effective.
This situation is reminiscent of Southwest’s Christmas 2022 meltdown. It left passengers stranded and ended up incurring more than $750 million in fines for its IT inefficiencies with crew scheduling during a period of bad weather. Ironically, dated software saved Southwest this weekend. The carrier is running Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 on many of its systems and these are so old that the IT update from CrowdStrike was not available for these operating systems (more here).
I am hearing reports of some airlines only offering flight credits to passengers for cancelled flights. ⁰⁰Let me be clear — you are entitled to get your money back promptly if your flight is cancelled and you don't take a rebooking.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 20, 2024
Delta is continuing to let customers change their itineraries at no cost (as it should). The airline is also issuing meal, hotel, and transportation vouchers to impacted passengers. Some travelers are also receiving Delta SkyMiles and travel vouchers. Passengers can get the latest information on their flights via the Delta app or Delta.com. According to United States Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, you are entitled to a refund. Hopefully, Delta will get it together today and not have to issue any of these to customers who really just want to get to their destinations.
Anthony’s Take: Delta has been slow to recover from the IT outage on Friday. Among the major carriers in the United States, it is the only one still struggling to get its planes out on time (or flying at all).
(Featured Image Credit: Delta Air Lines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
