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An IT outage on Friday saw airports, airlines, banks, and other institutions brought to a standstill overnight as Microsoft-based computers running software from CrowdStrike (a cybersecurity company that provides cloud workload protection, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services) stopped functioning. A fix was identified and deployed. Airlines have returned to almost normal operations with one notable exception: Delta Air Lines. Delta is on day five of its total meltdown and it’s gotten so bad that the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has opened an investigation into whether it is meeting legal obligations to impacted passengers.
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
The CrowdStrike update can certainly be blamed for Friday’s mess and even some of what was seen on Saturday and Sunday as carriers scrambled to get planes and people where they needed to be in order to fly. But, five days later Delta is still struggling to get pilots, flight attendants, and aircraft in the right spots, customer service lines have hours-long hold times, and airports are packed with people sleeping on floors and desperately trying to get on flights home or wherever they were originally traveling.
We have received reports of continued disruptions and unacceptable customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints filed with @USDOT.
I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 22, 2024
Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, has made it clear that Delta is at fault and that the airline needs to be held accountable. An investigation has been opened to shed some more light on what is going on here. It’s unclear what action can be taken by the DOT and some are calling Buttigieg’s tweets empty threats.
No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent. If any airline fails to honor its customer service requirements, let us know: https://t.co/Noj5A5hE8w
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 22, 2024
He says that Delta must provide refunds, free rebooking, as well as reimbursements for food, hotels, and more. Delta released a statement on its News Hub that outlines what passengers can do and expect, but this is still taking far too long.
Delta has completely dropped the ball on this.
My family and I have been stranded at Atlanta airport for 4 days now.
0 car rentals
0 hotels (was able to get one through a rewards program 25 minutes from the airport for tonight)
0 available flights
4-5 hours in line to even… pic.twitter.com/O6GRssOrdk— Multifamily Madness (@MultifamilyMad) July 22, 2024
Tweets like the one above are common. Around 6,000 Delta-operated flights (including regional partners) have been cancelled since Friday. This carries an estimated cost of more than $163 million. There are some passengers that have been stranded at airports like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) for over three days without access to hotel rooms or rental cars as those are all sold out.
Delta is doing its best to put this meltdown all on Friday’s CrowdStrike outage.
All other US airlines canceled 300 flights combined yesterday.
Delta canceled more than 1,000 for a fourth day in a row.
This stopped being a CrowdStrike problem days ago. It’s a Delta problem.
— Kyle Potter (@kpottermn) July 23, 2024
Yesterday alone, all other carriers combined cancelled 300 flights. Delta had more than 1,000 axed. To put this into perspective, Delta has cancelled more flights in the past five days than it did in 2018 and 2019.
Systems are catching up and synching. This will still take some time and in the interim, passengers will continue to sit for hours and eventually find out that their flights were scrapped. Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, released a statement on Sunday. It was a lot of fluff without any real ownership being taken. CrowdStrike was still the culprit per the note and the sentiment read that accountability should not be placed on Delta.
Anthony’s Take: It’s going to be another rough day for Delta. It seems like the situation is improving, but it will be bumpy for the next few days. If you’re traveling, remember that the agents in the airport have not caused these issues and you should not take your frustrations out on them.
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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.
1 comment
Bastian should have already resigned, effective next month so he and other company bigshots can work in the trenches helping passengers until this mess is fixed. Delta has handled this debacle in an absolutely disgraceful fashion. The initial problem may not have been Delta’s fault but the complete lack of a solution for passengers sure is.