As CEO of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian leads 100,000 global professionals committed to building the world’s leading international airline, driven by a human-centered, customer-centric culture and a spirit of innovation.
Like many companies around the world, Delta Airlines was affected by a technical issue with an outside vendor on Friday morning, forcing it to suspend flights while its systems were offline.
The grounding resulted in the cancellation of more than 3,500 Delta and Delta Connection flights through Saturday. Cancellations continued through Sunday as Delta teams worked to restore systems and resume operations. Canceling a flight is always a last resort and is not a decision to be taken lightly.
This technical issue occurred during one of the busiest summer travel weekends, causing over 90% bookings to be filled and limiting our ability to re-accommodate. We apologize to all customers affected by this incident. Delta is in the business of connecting the world, and we know how challenging it can be when your travel is interrupted.
Please know that Delta’s entire team of some of the best professionals in the industry is working around the clock to get you to your destination safely and restore the reliable, on-time flight experience you’ve come to expect from Delta.
Specifically, the issue affected the Microsoft Windows operating system. Delta has many applications that use this system, and one in particular, a crew tracking-related tool, was affected and was unable to effectively handle the unprecedented number of changes caused by the system shutdown. Our teams are working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality.
We have issued travel waivers to allow you to make changes to your itinerary at no cost, and we encourage you to take advantage of this flexibility when possible. We are also continuing to offer dining, hotel accommodations and transportation (where available) to customers whose flights are affected. As a token of our appreciation, we are also offering Delta SkyMiles and travel vouchers to affected customers. We will continue to provide updates on your itinerary on delta.com and through the Fly Delta app.
I want to thank Delta employees across our system who have worked tirelessly to restore best-in-class operations and support our customers under extremely challenging circumstances.
We appreciate your patience while we resolve these issues and restore service and the reliability you have come to expect from Delta.
