Delta Air Lines continues to face significant operational disruptions, canceling an additional 400 flights on Tuesday, following the global IT outage involving CrowdStrike and Microsoft. Since last Friday, the airline has cancelled over 4,000 flights, with more than 300 flights delayed on Tuesday alone.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has launched an inquiry into Delta due to the high volume of consumer complaints. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg emphasised the necessity for Delta to adhere to customer service commitments and legal obligations, stating, “This is not just the right thing to do, it’s the law.”
Delta attributed the prolonged issues to the complexity of manually repairing and rebooting critical IT systems that rely heavily on Microsoft Windows. The airline highlighted that one of its most essential systems, responsible for crew scheduling, required extensive manual intervention to synchronize.
CEO Ed Bastian and Chief Information Officer Rahul Samant have communicated ongoing efforts to restore normal operations, acknowledging that full recovery may take several more days. Social media has been flooded with images of stranded passengers and reports of luggage mishandling, adding to the challenges faced by the airline.
Delta has been uniquely impacted by the IT outage compared to other major carriers, which have mostly resumed normal operations. The airline is working tirelessly to resolve the issues and mitigate passenger inconvenience, with updates being provided to employees and customers.
