Delta Air Lines has grounded flights and predicted widespread cancellations Monday after a power outage hit its computer systems globally, disrupting the travel plans of thousands of passengers.
Advertisement
A power outage in Atlanta, Delta’s headquarters, prompted the world’s second largest airline to issue a ground stop early Monday morning. Flights gradually resumed about six hours later.
Waivers to cancel or change flights without penalty can be obtained from Delta’s website. So hopefully the Delta system is catching up with itself. As of 1:30 pm EDT, it was operating about 1,679 of its almost 6,000 scheduled flights.
A Delta spokesman said he had no information on the report. He said no other customers lost power.
A power outage at an Atlanta facility at around 2:30 a.m. local time initiated a cascading meltdown, according to the airline, which is also based in Atlanta.
A Delta spokeswoman declined to comment when asked about backup systems.
Confirmation of the troubles came in an official account that responds to customers via Twitter.
Delta’s flight information was not showing correctly on Delta’s website or on airport information boards, and this could also take time to resolve, the carrier said earlier. Mann said monitors typically display cached data until the computer system updates with new information.
“I don’t understand what is going on here. It’s just a mess”, she said as she stood in a long queue at Delta’s check-in counter. “Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations”, the statement said.
By 7 p.m., Delta said it had canceled more than 740 flights, although its computer systems were fully functioning again.
Advertisement
Delta (DAL) shares were down 2 percent in premarket trading. And after years of rapid consolidation in the airline business, these computer systems may be a hodgepodge of parts of varying ages and from different merger partners. Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights across the USA last month after technology problems prevented many travelers from checking in or boarding flights.
