Delta says crew scheduling software linked to cancellation headaches
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Delta travelers seek ticket assistance at Atlanta International Airport yesterday. Photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
Delta Air Lines struggled Monday to recover from this weekend's travel meltdown, even as other U.S. airlines are back to normal operations.
Driving the news: Delays and cancellations plagued almost every airline starting Friday due to a technical problem with widely used cybersecurity software that also affected hospitals, law enforcement and more.
- On Monday, nearly 400 flights at Hartsfield-Jackson had been canceled as of the afternoon, according to Flight Aware, and almost 1,000 had been delayed. Most of those were Delta flights.
- By comparison, American Airlines had canceled only 1 of its Monday ATL flights, while United Airlines was reporting 0 cancellations.
Zoom in: More than half of Delta's IT global systems are Windows-based, the company said in a statement on Monday.
- The software error required "Delta's IT teams to manually repair and reboot each of the affected systems, with additional time then needed for applications to synchronize and start communicating with each other."
Between the lines: The "critical" system that confirms flights have enough crew "is deeply complex and is requiring the most time and manual support to synchronize."
- Airlines use such software to match pilots and flight attendants with particular flights, while also meeting minimum crew rest rules.
- Similar operations software was at the core of Southwest Airlines' meltdown in late 2022.
What they're saying: "The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our reaccommodation capabilities," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in the statement.
- "I want to apologize to every one of you who have been impacted by these events."
Friction point: U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who's in the conversation as a potential vice presidential pick for likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris — said Sunday that he's "made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections."
- Delta CEO Ed Bastian has apologized to customers. The airline is offering travel waivers, meal vouchers, hotels and other make-goods to some affected travelers.
The bottom line: What was once an industrywide problem is now squarely a Delta issue.