As a computer outage on Monday caused Delta flight delays and cancellations around the world, passengers flooded social media with photos of jam-packed waiting areas. The problems impacted programs for check-in and pre-flight departure paperwork. Delta shares tanked 7.8% after the financial update on Tuesday, leaving them down more than 25% so far this year.
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Some Delta passengers say they received no notice of the problem.
Jackie Watanabe, who was due to travel from Las Vegas to Minneapolis, tweeted that the airline handed out blankets to passengers who wanted to get some sleep on the floor of the terminal.
Delta Airlines has grounded flights scheduled to leave Monday after experiencing unspecified systems issues.
“The plane in Atlanta still has yet to board”.
A travel waiver is in effect:http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/travelling-with-us/advisories/system-outage.html.
Until Monday, Delta had been considered among the leaders in operations and was thought to be immune to big IT problems.
“Like most other airports across the nation, our Delta flights have been affected, ” Thomas said.
A Delta spokesman said he had no information on the report.
The 7 a.m. flight to Atlanta, Georgia and the 6 a.m. flight to LaGuardia Airport in NY were affected by the Delta power outage.
Airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complicated systems to operate flights, schedule crews and run ticketing, boarding, airport kiosks, websites and mobile phone apps.
That has afflicted airlines in the US and overseas.
They included budget carrier Southwest Airlines Co, which had to halt departures last month after a technical outage, while American Airlines had to suspend flights from three of its hubs last September after technical problems. The Delta team is working very, very hard to restore and get these systems back as quickly as possible.
TV footage in the USA showed some boarding passes were being written out by hand.
► FLIGHT TRACKER: Is your flight on time? .
Thomas advised that all Delta passengers at Memphis International check their flight status with the airline.
The glitch follows several high-profile computer problems faced by USA airlines in the past year.
“It does feel like the old days”, Kopsick said. “I just thought I was going to get on my plane and be on my way and now I can’t fly out”, said Lauren Boyd, Delta passenger.
-September 17 – American Airlines halted flights to several major USA hubs for about 2 hours because of connectivity issues.
“Our systems are down everywhere”, the airline told customers on Twitter. The company is updating the condition of the outage on its press website and Twitter page.
The company said travelers will be entitled to a refund if the flight is canceled or significantly delayed. Travelers on some routes also can make a one-time change to the ticket free of charge.
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These systems are also being worked harder, with new fees and options for passengers, and more transactions – Delta’s traffic has almost doubled in the past decade.
