The Department of Transportation is currently looking into Delta Air Lines to ensure the company is appropriately addressing consumer issues following a recent series of flight cancellations linked to a global tech outage.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg emphasized the right of airline passengers to fair treatment, stating on social media that his department has received numerous complaints regarding Delta’s response to the technical disruptions.
Delta, based in Atlanta, is facing challenges in fully resuming operations after a problematic software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected businesses worldwide. This issue disrupted Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, leaving corporate users unable to access their systems and dealing with severe errors.
The fallout from this incident impacted nearly every major industry, including healthcare, retail, and finance, although airlines experienced the most significant disruptions. On Friday alone, over 46,000 flights were delayed and roughly 5,171 were canceled, according to FlightAware, with Delta bearing the brunt of the cancellations.
Delta canceled approximately 3,500 flights on Friday and Saturday, followed by more than 2,500 cancellations on Sunday and Monday, along with 3,441 additional delays. By Tuesday, the airline had already seen 738 flights canceled or delayed.
In a statement, Delta CEO Ed Bastian acknowledged the difficulties faced by travelers, expressing regret for the disruption caused by the outage. He noted that Delta relies on a substantial number of applications running on Microsoft Windows, including tools essential for crew management affected by the shutdown.
In response to the situation, Delta has implemented a travel waiver policy allowing customers to change their flights at no extra cost, and has also offered meal vouchers, hotel accommodations, and transportation assistance.