Delta Air Lines faced significant operational challenges on Monday, canceling over 600 flights in the wake of last week’s global cyber outage. The outage, which disrupted the airline’s crew tracking system, has left thousands of passengers stranded across the United States.
As of 7:00 a.m. EST, approximately 16% of Delta’s flights were canceled, based on data from FlightAware. The Atlanta-based airline has canceled more than 5,000 flights since the cyber incident began on Friday.
The cyber outage originated from a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which impacted Microsoft customers, including numerous airlines. While other U.S. airlines have largely recovered, Delta continues to experience difficulties. American Airlines canceled 1% of its flights on Monday, and United Airlines reported less than 1% of its flights were affected.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian explained that the issue affected their Microsoft Windows systems, disrupting a critical crew tracking application. Bastian assured customers and employees that Delta would continue to adjust schedules to ensure safety and address the situation.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg communicated with Bastian over the weekend, emphasizing the airline’s responsibilities to its customers and the Department of Transportation’s enforcement role. CrowdStrike reported that a significant number of the 8.5 million affected Microsoft devices are now back online.
