Atlanta, Georgia – Mass flight cancellations have caused chaos at U.S. airports for the third consecutive day, following a tech glitch that disrupted Microsoft Windows clients worldwide. The outage led to significant I.T. infrastructure disruption and upheaval in airline operations, prompting Delta Air Lines’ CEO to issue an apology on Sunday.
Delta and United Airlines both canceled hundreds of flights on Sunday as they continued to address the aftermath of the issues caused by a third-party vendor. The resulting problems have left airports across the country filled with crowded terminals, long lines of frustrated travelers seeking customer service, and passengers sleeping on concourse floors.
The airlines have collectively canceled over 1,200 flights in the U.S. by Sunday afternoon, with Delta leading the way with more than 700 cancellations, while United had 259 cancellations. Since the disruption on Friday, airlines have canceled a total of around 6,700 flights in the U.S., with Delta accounting for close to 3,200 of those cancellations.
In a message to customers, Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized for the ongoing disruptions and pledged to work towards restoring operations to their usual levels of reliability, especially during what was expected to be one of Delta’s busiest travel weekends of the summer.
The challenges faced by Delta were further exacerbated by the outage at Crowdstrike, based in Austin, Texas, affecting key Delta applications powered by Microsoft Windows operating system. The disruption impacted a vital crew-tracking tool, making it challenging for the airline to manage the unprecedented number of changes necessitated by the shutdown.
As Delta and United work to recover from the chaos, affected passengers are being offered meal vouchers, hotel accommodations, and transportation as needed. Delta is also providing travel vouchers and Delta SkyMiles as a gesture of apology to affected customers.
Despite the ongoing tech challenges and performance issues with the airline’s website and mobile app, Delta is actively working to stabilize the tools and improve their response to social media messages. In a similar vein, United Airlines reported progress in restoring their customer service call systems and technology operations, although additional cancellations and delays were expected over the weekend.
The disruptions over the past few days stand out in a year that had been relatively smooth for air travel until now. While the airline industry has seen an increase in operational problems, Delta had previously maintained high operational reliability, as evidenced by industry rankings and reports. These recent challenges serve as a reminder of the complexities and vulnerabilities in the air travel system, underscoring the importance of preparedness and efficient response strategies to address such disruptions in the future.