Delta Airlines finally managed to bring its operations under control on July 24th after five days of chaos caused by the CrowdStrike outage that affected numerous Microsoft Windows-based IT systems. The airline had to cancel 50 flights on Wednesday, which accounted for about 1% of its schedule, and a staggering 14% of its mainline schedule suffered delays. CEO Ed Bastian assured customers in a morning email that Delta, known for its reliability, is aiming for a full recovery by Thursday, expressing gratitude for their patience and apologizing for the travel disruptions.
Flight Cancellations and Delays
Between July 19th and July 23rd, Delta and its regional subsidiary Endeavor were forced to cancel a total of 6,271 flights, representing 31.6% of their schedule. Additionally, there were 9,335 flights delayed during this period. It is important to note that these numbers do not include Delta Connection flights operated by SkyWest and Republic Airways, who also faced challenges due to the IT system outage.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on Tuesday that they would be investigating Delta’s slow recovery following the CrowdStrike outage. The focus of the investigation is on whether Delta has met its customer-service commitments during this crisis. Passengers had to deal with lost baggage, long wait times on call centers, and malfunctioning digital rebooking tools. To compensate affected customers, Delta has promised to offer SkyMiles points or travel vouchers based on the impact of the disruption. Additionally, the airline will reimburse passengers for expenses incurred on hotels, meals, and ground transportation during their travels.
Delta attributed the slow recovery to the heavy reliance of its global IT systems on Windows. The last system to be fixed was the crew scheduling system, which added to the challenges faced by the airline during this period of uncertainty. Despite the setbacks, Delta is determined to fully restore operations and regain the trust of its customers.
Napsat komentář