Delta Says It’s Back to Normal Following Global IT Outage [CNET]

Delta Air Lines says its operations are back to normal after several days of chaos involving thousands of canceled and delayed flights that resulted from Friday’s massive global IT outage that crashed millions of computers around the world.

In a Thursday morning statement posted to Delta’s website, the airline said it started the day without any canceled flights. Most travelers have been reunited with their bags, and average call and message wait times for Delta reservations have fallen to generally below two minutes, the airline said.

On Wednesday, CEO Ed Bastian apologized for the havoc that left thousands of travelers delayed for hours or scrambling to rebook flights.

“While our initial efforts to stabilize the operations were difficult and frustratingly slow and complex, we have made good progress this week and the worst impacts of the CrowdStrike-caused outage are clearly behind us,” Bastian said. He added that delays and cancellations were down 50% Tuesday compared with the day before.

Millions of Windows PCs supporting hospitals, 911 systems, banks and telecommunications companies, in addition to airlines and airports, crashed early Friday morning after the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike sent out a faulty update to Windows systems that crashed them and left many people staring at what’s known as the “blue screen of death.”

CrowdStrike said it quickly identified and fixed the problem, but getting systems back online afterward proved to be a long and tedious process for many companies. On Wednesday, CrowdStrike released a preliminary report detailing how the problem occurred as a result of an “undetected error” in the update and how the company plans to prevent similar problems from happening in the future. By Thursday, more than 97% of CrowdStrike’s Windows sensors were back online.

While the effects of the outage were widespread, the problems involving airlines, particularly Delta, were some of the most visible and longest to linger.

According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, about 2,000 flights were canceled Tuesday, with another 33,000 delayed. About 500 of those cancellations and 1,700 of those delays involved Delta. Though still significant, those numbers marked big drops from Friday’s totals of more than 5,000 cancellations and 46,000 delays.

In addition to reimbursements and vouchers for meals, hotel accommodations and ground transportation, Bastian said affected Delta customers will also receive airline miles and travel vouchers as a “further gesture of apology.”

That promise comes a day after the US Department of Transportation launched an investigation into Delta’s response to the outage, citing a flood of complaints filed by unhappy travelers.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the inquiry Tuesday morning on the social media platform X, saying that the move was being made to ensure the airline is “following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions.”  

“All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld,” Buttigieg said in his post.

Buttigieg noted that Delta is required to provide prompt refunds to consumers who choose not to rebook, along with timely reimbursements for food and hotels to those affected by the delays and cancellations, as well as “adequate customer service assistance.”

Customers should first try to resolve their grievances with the airline directly, but Buttigieg said his department wants to hear from customers who feel Delta hasn’t treated them fairly.

Delta has said it’s cooperating with the investigation and remains focused on restoring its operations. 

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