Four days after the worldwide technology outage, Delta Air
Lines is still struggling. The carrier has had trouble getting crews in place
and rebooking passengers from the meltdown.
After having to cancel nearly a third of its flights on
Monday – 29 percent – Delta has already had to cancel 11 percent of its
flights as of 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday, according to FlightAware.com
Now, the United States government is getting involved.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on X that
the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has opened an investigation into
Delta over the recent flight disruptions associated with the tech outage.
The long lines at airports, particularly at Delta’s hubs in
Atlanta, Minneapolis, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, have been
overwhelming. The DOT has pressured Delta to provide hotel accommodations and
food vouchers for displaced customers.
Many expect the delays and cancellations to persist through
the end of the week. Through four days, Delta has been forced to cancel more
than 5,000 flights, said Rahul Samant, the company’s chief information officer,
in a message to employees on Monday.
“So, we’re optimistic we’ll get it done,” Samant said.
“There will be some things as (CEO) Ed (Bastian) said, that we will do today,
tomorrow to get to a better place by the end of the week.”
Samant said the IT staff is working “feverishly” and “around
the clock.”
While many other airlines have survived the crisis and are
back to normal, or close to it, Delta is so large that the majority of the
problems stem from an inability
to place crew, including pilots, in the right places.
Some pilots and crew members have been stranded just as the
passengers and some have been unable to secure hotel rooms.
According to an estimate from Savanthi Syth, an airline
analyst for Raymond James, the problems have already cost Delta at least $163
million.
Bastian already
apologized to customers and employees.
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