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Late last week, there was a major technology outage caused by a software update gone wrong from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The update basically took down Microsoft systems worldwide. A lot of industries and businesses were affected, including airlines, hotels, retailers, and more. It was so widespread that there were conspiracy theories about it. Most places were able to recover and resume business as usual over the weekend. Airlines, however, were not as quick to recover. Delta, American, and United Airlines had to cancel thousands of flights. Southwest, which infamously melted down last December due to its antiquated software, was not affected.
Five days after the systemwide failures, the airlines still haven’t completely recovered. Specifically, Delta is still struggling hard. People are stuck buying more expensive tickets on other airlines or camping out in airports with little or no recourse. Enter Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who has been on top of all of the airlines’ shenanigans over these past three years. Two years ago, he set up the Customer Service Dashboard that requires transparency and serves as a cheat sheet for customers to know each airline’s policy on certain things. Last year, he fined American Airlines $4.1 million for keeping passengers on board for too long during delays and in April, he announced that airlines are now required to give automatic refunds when a flight is delayed for more than three hours or canceled. Keeping up with that energy, the DOT is investigating Delta as a result of their catastrophic failure.
Delta Air Lines is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection as the airline scraps hundreds of flights for a fifth straight day after a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike took down Microsoft systems around the world. While the outage impacted many businesses, from retailers to airlines, most have regained their footing and resumed regular operations. As of 8 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, however, Delta had canceled 415 flights, far exceeding cancellations by any other U.S. airline, according to data from flight tracker FlightAware.
In a statement sent to CBS News on Tuesday, the Transportation Department said it “is investigating Delta Air Lines following continued widespread flight disruptions and reports of concerning customer service failures.”
Delta said in a statement it has received the agency’s notice of investigation, adding that it “is fully cooperating.”
“We remain entirely focused on restoring our operation after cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike’s faulty Windows update rendered IT systems across the globe inoperable,” the company said.
Delta Air Lines is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection as the airline scraps hundreds of flights for a fifth straight day after a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike took down Microsoft systems around the world. While the outage impacted many businesses, from retailers to airlines, most have regained their footing and resumed regular operations. As of 8 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, however, Delta had canceled 415 flights, far exceeding cancellations by any other U.S. airline, according to data from flight tracker FlightAware. In a statement sent to CBS News on Tuesday, the Transportation Department said it “is investigating Delta Air Lines following continued widespread flight disruptions and reports of concerning customer service failures.”
Delta said in a statement it has received the agency’s notice of investigation, adding that it “is fully cooperating.”
The airline is continuing to struggle with the aftermath of the outage, causing frustrations for travelers trying to get home or go on vacation. Some have opted to pay for pricey tickets on other airlines in order to get to their destinations, according to CBS Boston.
In a Monday statement, Delta said its employees are “working 24/7” to restore its operations, but CEO Ed Bastian also said it would take “another couple days” before “the worst is clearly behind us.” Other carriers have returned to nearly normal levels of service disruptions, intensifying the glare on Delta’s relatively weaker response to the outage that hit airlines, hospitals and businesses around the world.
Delta has canceled more than 5,500 flights since the outage started early Friday morning, including more than 700 flights on Monday, according to aviation-data provider Cirium. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of all cancellations worldwide Monday, including nearly all aborted flights in the United States. United Airlines was the next-worst performer since the onset of the outage, canceling nearly 1,500 flights. United canceled 40 flights on Tuesday morning, FlightAware’s data shows.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke to Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday about the airline’s high number of cancellations since Friday. Buttigieg said his agency had received “hundreds of complaints” about Delta, and he expects the airline to provide hotels and meals for travelers who are delayed and to issue quick refunds to those customers who don’t want to be rebooked on a later flight.
“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” Buttigieg said. He vowed to help Delta passengers by enforcing air travel consumer-protection rules.
Get ‘em, Secretary Pete! I saw Pete’s official government account was Tweeting all weekend, reminding people that they were entitled to refunds if they wanted them, not just the vouchers that some airlines were apparently offering without the refund option. Between all of the airline regulation, war on junk fees, and going after monopolies like Ticketmaster, the Biden administration has done so much for customers and us regular folk. It’s so awesome to know that after years of screwing us over, adding and increasing fees, and never seeming to face accountability, we’re finally seeing repeated instances of it happening.
My family and I actually flew on Southwest last Thursday morning and checked into our hotel that afternoon. We got here just in time because we heard from fellow guests the next day that three hours after our arrival, it was total chaos because the Hilton’s check-in systems went down as a part of the update, too. We’re in San Diego for Comic-Con, so our East Coast selves went to bed early and missed the entire thing, but all people could talk about the next day was how much of a clusterf-ck it was.
We have received reports of continued disruptions and unacceptable customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints filed with @USDOT.
I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 22, 2024
I am hearing reports of some airlines only offering flight credits to passengers for cancelled flights. ⁰⁰Let me be clear — you are entitled to get your money back promptly if your flight is cancelled and you don't take a rebooking.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 20, 2024
Photos credit: CNP/INSTARimages and via Instagram/Delta
