Delta Air Lines has struggled to recover from the IT outage from Friday morning that affected airline operations and other industries.
As of 7:25 a.m. Monday, Delta led FlightAware’s list of canceled flights with 626 scrubbed for the day, which is 17 percent of its schedule. As of that time, 132 flights were delayed. On Sunday, the carrier had canceled 1,380 flights, 36 percent of its schedule, with 1,605 delayed, which was 42 percent of its schedule, according to the data. The Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta continued to post the most cancellations and delays for departures and arrivals.
American Airlines and United Airlines also were among the carriers most affected by the outage, but their cancellations and delays have declined more than Delta’s. As of Monday morning, American had canceled 36 flights with 142 delayed for the day, while United had canceled 14 flights with 50 delays. On Sunday, United had canceled 266 flights with 734 delayed, and American had canceled 92 flights with 236 delayed.
The cancellations and delays come at the onset of the Global Business Travel Association’s annual convention in Atlanta.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday noted on the carrier’s website that “Delta’s teams [are working] to recover our systems and restore our operation.”
“Canceling a flight is always a last resort, and something we don’t take lightly,” he continued. “The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90 percent, limiting our reaccommodation capabilities. I want to apologize to every one of you who have been impacted by these events.”
Bastian added that Delta has a “significant number” of applications that use the affected Microsoft Windows operating system, “in particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown. Our teams have been working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality.”
U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke Sunday with Bastian, Reuters reported, and reminded Bastian of the “airline’s responsibilities to customers and the department’s enforcement role.”
Delta has extended its travel waiver to cover flights affected July 19-22.
