Summary

  • Delta Air Lines faced criticism from US DOT for disruptions and asked to give assistance to affected passengers.
  • Delta canceled 5,000 flights as of Monday morning due to the effects of a global tech outage on Friday.
  • Delta’s CEO even apologized on Sunday for the disruptions caused.

While the global technology outage on Friday affected many airlines worldwide, some have been impacted more than others. The big three US carriers all had to cancel multiple airlines, but Delta seems to have been affected more. Now, the airline has also received warnings from the US Department of Transportation about its handling of the current situation.

US DOT Criticizes Delta

Delta Air Lines has been forced to cancel thousands of flights in the last few days due to the cascading effects of Friday’s global technology outage. With passengers of the affected flights looking for alternatives and forced to tweak their travel plans, the US DOT has also been receiving multiple reports of the airline’s operational disruption.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 departing rainy LAX shutterstock_1677230287

Photo: Lisa Bronitt | Shutterstock

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has now warned Delta that it needs to protect the passengers under these circumstances and give them refunds wherever applicable. In a series of social media posts, he said,

“We have received reports of continued disruptions and unacceptable customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints filed with USDOT. I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections.

“Delta must provide prompt refunds to consumers who choose not to take rebooking, free rebooking for those who do, and timely reimbursements for food and hotel stays to consumers affected by these delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance.”

Buttigieg went on to say that no passenger should have to go through being stranded at the airport and encouraged customers to inform the DOT in case airlines are not treating them fairly.

Disruption continues

Delta and Delta Connection have canceled around 5,000 flights as of Monday morning. With flights booked at passenger loads of more than 90%, Delta has been limited in its rebooking options.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 at Sacramento Airport

Photo: christianthiel.net | Shutterstock

American Airlines and United Airlines have also had to cancel flights in the last few days, but their disruption is a lot less than that of Delta. The Atlanta Journal – Constitution cites FlightAware data that revealed that as of 06:00 Monday, Delta had canceled 575 of its mainline flights as opposed to United’s 12 and American’s 36.

Delta CEO apologizes

US DOT’s criticism comes after Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian apologized for the airline’s disruptions and even announced compensation packages for passengers. He explained the reason for the cancelations and delays, saying that Delta used the system that was affected on Friday extensively, resulting in widespread disruption. He said,

“Specifically, the issue impacted the Microsoft Windows operating system. Delta has a significant number of applications that use that system, and 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.”

Delta Air Lines Airbus A350-900 landing at AMS shutterstock_2373260399

Photo: Kevin Hackert | Shutterstock

Indeed, Delta’s processes that rely on the system that crashed will likely take a little more time to recover fully. Hopefully, the carrier will address all of its customers’ grievances in the days to come and compensate them fairly.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *