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Hundreds of U.S. flights were canceled on Monday as airlines, led by Delta Air Lines, worked to restore operations, four days after a global technical outage caused massive delays and stranded travelers at airports across the country.
Delta Air Lines is under increasing pressure to get passengers back in the skies after a wave of U.S. flight cancellations. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has expressed frustration with the pace of Delta's recovery and the airline's CEO has apologized to affected passengers.
More than 1,000 flights were canceled and more than 9,000 were delayed on Monday to and from the U.S., according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Delta Air Lines passengers have seen more than 4,400 flight cancellations since Friday, with more than 950 canceled as of Monday evening, by far the most of any airline.
Delta Air Lines declined to comment on the figures, but in a customer update Sunday afternoon, CEO Ed Bastian said the airline was working to restore service for customers.
“Everyone across the company is working around the clock to get this operation to where it needs to be,” Bastian told employees in a video message Monday, according to a news release.
The Atlanta-based airline said it “hopes to resolve this issue” by offering perks such as SkyMiles, vouchers and refund rights.
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Melissa Levin and Nicole DaSilva are trying to get back to Arizona but are stuck in Atlanta for now.
Three of them — Nicole DaSilva, Tiffany Denlinger and Melissa Levin — were stranded Monday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, surrounded by luggage and lines of exhausted travelers with no prospect of returning home.
Fresh off a vacation in Athens, Greece, the trio is trying to fly back to Arizona for two days, and right now, all they have is a pile of canceled plane tickets.
Denlinger said he has been putting electronic tracking devices in his luggage that fly from concourse to concourse at the Atlanta airport, but without access to his suitcases or his laptop, he is losing fees and revenue.
meanwhile Delta says The airline plans to cover hotel, meal and ground transportation costs for affected customers, but will not compensate passengers for lost revenue from canceled flights.
DaSilva and Levine managed to find long-term boarding for their dog in Tucson, where temperatures are expected to reach a high of 104 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, but the air conditioning has broken down. Now the couple is scrambling to find another place to keep their dog safe from the heat.
Denlinger believes airlines were not prepared for this situation, saying, “We're just kind of guinea pigs for something really tragic.”
Many stranded passengers are finding life stressful without access to their usual resources.
Melissa Vestal, of North Carolina, told CNN affiliate WCCO on Monday that she was running low on prescription medication after being stranded at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport for three days.
“I was preparing to take an extra day of medication, but I quickly realized I could be here a few days, so I'm conserving my medication,” Vestal said. “I actually don't have any medication today, so I'm hoping I'll be lucky today.”
Vestal told WCCO she was on a Delta flight home from a trip to Alaska when the outage occurred, and said she had little sleep after waiting hours in line for a flight over the weekend. Still, Vestal praised Delta employees, calling them “angels,” and said she had a flight booked to return home for later Monday.
The “largest IT outage in history,” caused by a software update for Microsoft equipment late Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday morning, affected an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide, causing disruption at airports, halting 911 services and challenges at medical facilities.
The CrowdStrike problem affected many airlines' passenger check-in computers, but also disrupted Delta Air Lines' critical crew scheduling software.
“In particular, one of our crew tracking related tools was affected and was unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes caused by the outage,” Bastian said in a statement.
The outage occurred during what Bastian described as “the busiest weekend of summer travel,” with 90% of the airline's flights booked, exacerbating the situation.
Here's what we know about the outage and its ongoing impacts.
Joe Raedl/Getty Images
Travelers in Detroit and across the country were plagued by canceled and delayed flights over the weekend, and problems for some airlines continued into the week.
The company said the outage was caused by a software flaw and not a security incident or cyber attack.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the issue had been identified and isolated, and that engineers had deployed an update to fix the problem.
Kurtz apologised to customers, saying he was “deeply sorry for any inconvenience and trouble caused.”
In an update posted to LinkedIn late Sunday, CrowdStrike said a “significant number” of its 8.5 million devices were back online and running.
Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group, told CNN that the total cost of the outages could exceed $1 billion.
Confusion and confusion for travelers
More than 1,800 U.S. flights were canceled and more than 9,900 were delayed on Sunday, according to FlightAware. Major hotels, including Marriott International and some Hiltons, were affected by both delays in payment processing and check-in procedures.
U.S.-based carriers American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Allegiant Air, Sun Country Airlines and Frontier Airlines all reported problems on Friday.
Delta Air Lines said the system was offline, leading the airline to suspend all flights on Friday morning, and by Saturday, more than 3,500 Delta and Delta Connection flights had been canceled. The airline canceled 1,208 flights on Saturday, and more than 1,200 were canceled on Sunday, according to FlightAware.
Delta Airlines said it would not allow unaccompanied minors to fly until July 24th due to the power outage.
Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
Delta passengers Patty (left) and Alice Crump receive ticketing assistance from an agent at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday after multiple flights to Washington, D.C. were canceled.
Experts are urging travelers who are forced to cancel trips to consider their refund options, as new federal rules mean that travelers who are inconvenienced by airlines are entitled to cash refunds rather than vouchers or travel credits.
According to the department, Buttigieg met with Delta's Bastian on Sunday afternoon as the airline continued to be hit by numerous flight cancellations.
“I have made it clear that I expect Delta to promptly provide refunds to consumers who do not wish to rebook, rebook at no charge to consumers affected by delays and cancellations, provide timely refunds for meals and hotel accommodations, and provide appropriate customer service assistance to all customers,” Buttigieg said in a statement.
Other airlines were largely back on track over the weekend, with Turkish Airlines, one of the world's largest, saying on Saturday that “the global technical issue has been resolved and all our operations have returned to normal.”
On the same day, Jetstar Japan, Hong Kong Express and Cebu Pacific announced that operations were gradually recovering after disruptions caused by a global technology outage.
David Kennedy, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Binary Defense, told CNN on Saturday that even if the flawed computer update is reverted, it won't be a quick fix for airlines, because they have computers at thousands of gates that would need to be rebooted individually.
“It's not as simple as just restarting it. There are a lot of steps and complexities involved,” Kennedy said. “Airports and hubs just don't have the manpower to do it.”
Delta said in a statement Monday that one of its most critical systems “ensures that crew are in the right place at the right time on every flight… is highly complex and requires the most time and manual support to synchronize.”
As travel disruptions continue, Buttigieg said in a social media post on Saturday that he's received reports that some airlines are only offering flight credits to passengers on canceled flights.
“Let me be clear: if your flight is canceled and you don't rebook, you are entitled to an immediate refund,” Buttigieg said.
Hospitals, 911 systems, and government agencies affected
Because CrowdStrike's software was widely used, the outage rippled across numerous industries, including emergency communications, government services and healthcare.
Large hospital systems including Massachusetts General Hospital Brigham in Massachusetts, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Pennsylvania and the Mount Sinai Health System in New York all reported being affected by the outages on Friday.
Emory Healthcare in Atlanta said “surgeries at our outpatient surgery centers and hospitals will be postponed until the system stabilizes.”
Several cancer centers, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, have also suspended certain procedures and appointments.
Some blood banks have experienced disruptions as well.
And 911 service was briefly suspended in some areas, including Arizona and Alaska, but has since been restored.
Government agencies, including the Social Security Administration and local Department of Motor Vehicles, also suspended operations due to the outage. Public transportation systems in Washington, DC and Pennsylvania were also affected but resumed service on Friday.
