Delta Flight Delays Stretch into Third Day After Computer Outage

Tuesday morning started out with around 250 cancellations.

“I don’t believe the flight ops, maintenance, passenger service systems, crew and dispatch applications are engineered with the level of redundancy needed”, Edwards, who retired in 2014 under pressure after several service disruptions at United, said by telephone.

Sometimes, Delta took extreme measures to preserve that record such as letting delays roll on throughout the day instead of canceling. “Delta agents today are using the original interface we designed for this system while we continue with our resetting efforts”.

Delta on Wednesday said some flights were still being delayed or canceled due to crews stuck in the wrong place or exceeding federal caps on on-duty hours. Through the first two days of this outage – and we’re largely back to normal this afternoon – we have canceled on the mainline close to five times the number of flights that we have canceled year-to-date.

The failure of Delta Air Lines Inc.’s worldwide computer network this week spotlights the vulnerability of the information systems sustaining the biggest USA carriers, each of which has contended with major disruptions during the past year. The grounding and its cascading impact has been a black eye.

“Delta employees have been working around the clock and are committed to bringing the airline back to full strength”, Lentsch said.

The airline hopes to have service returned to normal by Wednesday afternoon, though.

Delta Air Lines, again anticipating canceled flights and delays in a domino effect from its Monday global systems outage, extended to Thursday its offer of free reticketing for travelers already booked to fly on the world’s second-largest air carrier, even if their flight isn’t canceled or delayed. “I think for people who have been put out, they really should be accommodating us better than that”.

But patience was starting to wear thin at some airports.

Edwards did not have specific data on how numerous delays and cancellations Wednesday affected Detroit Metro Airport travelers, but he advised customers to check delta.com or the airline’s app, Fly Delta. She was unable to download a boarding pass online and missed her flight.

Lines at the LAX terminal almost extended out the door as passengers arriving for flights tried to check in.

Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said that after a power outage at the company’s Atlanta headquarters, some key systems and network equipment did not switch over to backup systems. They also provided $200 travel vouchers to all customers who experienced at least a three-hour flight delay or cancellation.

Delta extended its offer of compensation to affected passengers to noon Wednesday and gave them until August 21 to rebook flights without paying a change fee.

But in the midst of the busy summer travel season, finding seats to accommodate all the affected passengers has been a nightmare for the airline.

Another 278 flight cancellations have been added to the more than 1,600 cancellations since Monday.