Delta Cancels More Flights In Struggle To Recover From Microsoft Outage

(RTTNews) - Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) has been facing significant challenges due to a global software failure linked to a problematic update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which disrupted Microsoft systems worldwide and canceled hundreds of flights on Monday.

The airline had to cancel 1,500 flights on Friday and an additional 3,000 flights over the weekend. On Monday, they canceled another 700 flights, accounting for about 60% of the total cancellations by all airlines worldwide. This is in contrast to most other U.S. airlines, which experienced only 1% of their flights canceled, as reported by CNN.

Delta is facing ongoing difficulties with the software used to manage and schedule flight crews, with an estimated financial impact exceeding $160 million as of Sunday, according to research firm Raymond James.

The airline CEO, Ed Bastian, mentioned in a public letter that the critical crew tracking tool became nonfunctional due to the software issue, making it impossible for Delta to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown. Delta will be providing travel waivers to passengers on affected flights, allowing them to change their itineraries and rebook without charge. Bastian noted, "Our teams have been working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality."

This incident has had a widespread impact, with Microsoft reporting that the glitch affected 8.5 million devices globally and experts indicating that it may take days or even weeks to fix all impacted computers.