We’re going to do everything we can to make certain it does not ever happen again. Even brief outages can now snarl traffic and, as the Delta incident shows, those problems can go global in seconds.
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Delta’s problems began early Monday when a power outage in Atlanta shut down its computer systems.
As of 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, Delta had announced 150 flight cancellations for the day. Delta’s website said it expects to return to normal operations later Wednesday. Instead of staying home or poolside at a hotel until the airline could fix the mess, many passengers learned about the gridlock only after they reached the airport.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian, in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said he takes “personal responsibility” for the episode and added new detail to its cause. It’s not who we are.
-If your flight was canceled or “significantly delayed” Monday and Tuesday, you are entitled to a refund. “Other systems did. And now we’re seeing instability in these systems”.
Shares of Delta were little changed at $37.40 in afternoon trading.
“When Delta doesn’t fly aircraft, not only do customers not get to their destination, but flight crews don’t get to where they are scheduled to be”, said Delta Chief Operating Officer Gil West.
“Delta still remains the best operation in the industry by a wide margin”, McKenzie said, noting that the airline had canceled far fewer flights than rivals in recent years.
The challenge of keeping systems upgraded is particularly steep because they operate around the clock and jetliners are in the air nearly constantly these days.
The servers that lacked backup power are a relatively small percentage of the total, but they are “meaningful in their impact”, Bastian said.
“We’re in the final hours of bouncing back from the disruption”, Bill Lentsch, Delta’s senior vice president for airport customer service and airline operations, said in an online posting.
-Those who want to rebook now have until August 21 to make a one-time change without incurring change fees.
Monday’s computer meltdown lasted about six hours and forced Delta to suspend all flights. The carrier also fell victim to a reservations-system glitch in October.
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A connectivity flaw at American Airlines Group Inc. halted flights at its Chicago, Dallas and Miami hubs in September.
