Delta Air Lines said it expected to cancel almost 250 flights Tuesday morning, and that about 200 other flights would be delayed after Monday’s computer outage at its corporate headquarters in Atlanta.
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Delta Airlines delayed or cancelled hundreds of flights on Monday after its computer systems crashed, stranding thousands of people on a busy travel day.
The Memphis cancellations were among 530 flights scrubbed by Delta worldwide on Tuesday, on top of about 1,000 cancellations Monday. Her family was trying to get to Raleigh, N.C after their Delta flight was delayed.
For passengers flying from European Union countries to the United States whose flights were delayed for more than 4 hours or canceled, the EU requires that the airline provide 600 euros, or about $660, and get passengers back home.
According to flight schedule posted on the Columbia Metropolitan Airport’s website, the airline canceled a 7:45 a.m. departure for Atlanta and delayed a handful of other flights.
Once Delta cleared flights to take off, “we boarded and didn’t have any problems”.
Delta urged travelers to check flight status at delta.com before going to the airport.
As The Two-Way reported Monday, Georgia Power, the utility that serves the Atlanta region where Delta is based, tweeted that “Delta experienced equipment failure overnight”. “Delta’s investigation into the causes is ongoing”. No other customers lost power, a spokesman said.
Flights that were already in the air when the outage occurred continued to their destinations, but flights on the ground remained there. United Airlines and American Airlines both suffered outages past year – United has struggled with several meltdowns since combining technology systems with merger partner Continental Airlines.
According to industry group IATA, Delta ranks only behind American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
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Delta could not re-book passengers onto one of its top rivals and the world’s largest carrier, American Airlines Group Inc, because the two companies ended a ticketing and baggage agreement previous year. Even brief outages can now snarl traffic and, as the Delta incident shows, those problems can go global in seconds. United Airlines suffered a series of massive IT meltdowns after combining its technology systems with those of merger partner Continental Airlines. The carrier didn’t estimate how long repairs would take. Agents at many airports were using pen and paper to create boarding passes. “I travel weekly, so I’m used to it”, Shannon said.
