Delta CEO sees flight disruptions lasting for another couple of days

By Rajesh Kumar Singh and David Shepardson

(Reuters) -Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian on Monday said it will take the U.S. carrier another couple of days before its operations recover from a global cyber outage that snarled flights around the world.

The Atlanta-based carrier has been hit hard by the outage. It has canceled over 4,000 flights since Friday, stranding thousands of customers across the country. By contrast, disruptions at other major U.S. carriers had largely subsided.

On Monday, Delta had canceled over 800 flights, or about 21% of the scheduled total as of 3:30 p.m. EST, according to data from FlightAware. It accounted for about half of total flight cancellations.

A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:) triggered system problems for Microsoft (NASDAQ:) customers, including many airlines, on Friday.

In a video message to employees on Monday, Bastian and Chief information officer Rahul Samant provided an update on the situation.

Bastian said the company is working around the clock to get its operation back on track, but it will take another couple of days before the worst is over.

“Today will be a better day than yesterday and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again,” he said.

The company’s shares closed down about 3.5% at $43.83.

About 60% of most critical applications that Delta uses are Microsoft Windows based, and were rendered inoperable early on Friday following CrowdStrike’s faulty Windows update, the airline said.

Delta’s IT teams required to manually repair and reboot each of the affected systems, with additional time needed for applications to synchronize and start communicating with each other.

But its crew tracker application – which ensures all flights have a full crew in the right place at the right time – is requiring the most time and manual support to synchronize, Delta said.

“Everything except that critical system is up and running,” Samant said. “And that is what we’re working on feverishly.”

CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

Delta is widely respected for running a reliable operation. Analysts say its on-time performance in terms of arrivals and departures has helped the airline cement its position as a premium airline.

The issue has left customers fuming. Many complained that they had to wait hours for assistance as the airline’s helplines were overwhelmed. Some were forced to rent cars to drive hundreds of miles, while others said they would have to wait days for new flights.

“I was very disappointed in the way Delta handled this,” wrote Bob Pearlman on LinkedIn, who had booked a flight from Honolulu to Salt Lake City.

Bastian said the outage hit the airline on “the busiest travel weekend of the summer,” limiting its re-accommodation capabilities.

The company said its crews are fully staffed and ready to serve our customers.

In a staff memo seen by Reuters, Delta said it is “doing everything possible” to bring stability to its staffing. It has boosted incentive pay for pilots and flight attendants.

“The single biggest thing you can do to help at this point is to pick up trips in any base,” it said in the memo, a request for crew to volunteer for extra trips.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Sunday his office had received hundreds of complaints about Delta’s customer service and asked the airline to provide prompt refunds, free rebooking and timely reimbursements to customers.