The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is investigating whether Delta Air Lines has complied with passenger-protection laws amid a technology meltdown that has forced the carrier to cancel thousands of flights.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a 23 July social media post that the DOT has “opened an investigation into Delta… to ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions”.
“All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld,” he adds.
Among major US carriers, Delta has struggled most severely with issues related to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which began on 19 July and continued through the “busiest travel weekend of the summer”, according to chief executive Ed Bastian.
Delta has cancelled more than 5,000 flights since the IT issues began. Early on 23 July, it had cancelled 440 flights, representing 12% of its total departures.
The Atlanta-based carrier’s issues stem from crew-tracking tools that were “unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown”, Bastian adds. “Our teams have been working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality.”
Delta has reportedly lost track of the locations of its flight crews, recalling the operational meltdown of Southwest Airlines in December 2022 that resulted in the cancellation of nearly 17,000 flights amid peak holiday air travel.
The US Department of Transportation has ruled the global CrowdStrike IT outage a “controllable event”, meaning any flight cancellations or delays are attributable to the airline – unlike disruptions related to weather or air traffic control issues.
”While you should first try to resolve issues directly with the airline, we want to hear from passengers who believe that Delta has not complied with US DOT-enforced passenger protection requirements during the recent travel disruptions,” Buttigieg says. “We will follow up.”
United Airlines also experienced crippling IT issues during the busy weekend, though to a lesser extent.
”Almost all our systems were hit and that meant more than 26,000 computers and devices had to be manually fixed by technicians, one at a time, at each of our contact centres and 365 airports around the world,” CEO Scott Kirby said on 22 July.
”Today, our operation is back to normal and for the last 24 hours our systems, tools and schedules have been stable,” he says. ”Our recovery was quick, given the circumstances, but not immediate.”
