Two Democratic U.S. senators have questioned 13 major airlines about their information technology systems in the wake of cancellations and delays.
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Delta was forced to ground about 2,000 flights last week after a small fire resulted in a “massive failure” at the airline’s technology center.
A pair of USA senators are pressing US airlines for more details about the resilience of their technical systems after a pair of outages at Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines in the last month caused widespread disruption that affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The senators further raised concerns about how airlines assist passengers in the event of flight cancellations and delays, saying while many used to rebook stranded passengers via their competitors without charge, new reports suggest some no longer have such cooperative agreements.
Delta, American and Southwest said they had received the letter. “We will continue to invest to make sure we have a secure, robust technology infrastructure in place to support our complex business”. United Airlines referred requests to its trade association, Airlines for America, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“These flight cancellations and delays are not only an inconvenience and expense for consumers, but they also can harm our economy, which relies on a safe and efficient aviation industry to stay competitive in our fast-paced, globalized economy”, the two Democrats wrote to the airlines. In May, they called on the nation’s airlines to halt checked baggage fees for the busy summer travel period, while in March they introduced legislation to limit the “soaring, gouging fees that contribute to airlines’ record profits and passengers’ rising pain”, according to a release announcing the bill.
Atlanta-based Delta canceled more than 2,100 flights last week after a computer outage led to the shutdown of the airline’s operations, followed by the disruption of flights for days.
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Sens. Ed MarkeyEd MarkeyDems push airlines on IT systems amid technical glitches ‘Americans’ spies set to visit White House White House unveils plan to boost drones MORE (D-Mass.) and Richard BlumenthalRichard BlumenthalDems push airlines on IT systems amid technical glitches FCC should consider wireless auto tech, say sens. It was designed in the 1960s to process large numbers of transactions quickly and is still updated by IBM, which did a major rewrite of the operating system about a decade ago.
