By Hundreds of US flights were canceled Monday, as carriers, particularly Delta Air Lines, work to recover four days after a global tech outage caused massive delays and left travelers stranded at airports around the nation.
Delta is facing mounting pressure to get passengers back in the air, as it continues to rack up the majority of canceled US flights. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has expressed frustration with the pace of Delta’s recovery and its CEO has apologized to affected travelers.
More than 900 flights into, within or out of the United States were canceled by midday Monday, and 3,100 flights were delayed, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. Delta passengers have been slammed by more than 4,500 cancellations since Friday, including 748 on Monday, by far the most of any airline.
Delta declined to comment on the numbers, but in an update to customers Sunday afternoon, CEO Ed Bastian said the company is working to restore operations after the outage.
The “largest IT outage in history” – prompted by a software update for Microsoft devices late Thursday into the early hours of Friday – impacted an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide, causing disorder at airports, outages for 911 services and challenges at health care facilities.
While the CrowdStrike problem affected computers meant to check customers in for many airlines, it also disrupted Delta’s crucial crew scheduling software.
“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,” Bastian said in the statement.
It didn’t help that the outage took place on what Bastian described as “the busiest travel weekend of the summer,” with 90% of the airline’s flights booked.
Here’s what we know about the outage and its continued effects.
The massive tech outage affected 8.5 million Windows devices globally. This has had a domino effect on various critical sectors, including aviation, emergency services, and healthcare. The timing couldn’t have been worse, as it occurred during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
The aviation sector has been one of the hardest hit. Over the past four days, more than 4,500 Delta flights have been canceled, and thousands more have been delayed. The situation has caused significant disruption for passengers and airlines alike, with Delta bearing the brunt of the cancellations.
Delta Air Lines has been working around the clock to resolve the issues caused by the outage. CEO Ed Bastian has issued an apology to passengers and assured them that the airline is taking all necessary steps to restore normal operations. The airline has been focusing on fixing its crew scheduling software, which was significantly affected by the outage.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has voiced his concerns about the slow recovery process and has called on Delta to expedite their efforts to minimize the impact on travelers. The government is closely monitoring the situation and providing support where necessary.
While some systems have recovered from the initial outage, experts say getting everything back in order will be a lengthy process. Delta and other airlines are working tirelessly to ensure that passengers can travel with as little disruption as possible.
Source: CNN
