Delta Air Lines Still Cancelling Flights Due to Friday’s CrowdStrike Outage

For the fifth straight day, Delta Air Lines is seeing a major impact from Friday’s CrowdStrike outage, even as other carriers fully recover.

According to FlightAware, as of 6:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Delta has already canceled 11% of its daily flights, almost 400 total cancellations, with many of those cancellations coming at Atlanta Hartsfield International (ATL), its biggest hub. No other U.S. airline is seeing close to that impact—United’s cancellations total 1% while American’s and Southwest’s each total less than 1%, respectively.

That brings Delta’s total cancellations because of Friday’s incident to more than 6,000 flights, and the impact doesn’t end there. Delta passengers continue to report missing bags, long lines for customer service, and problems getting rental cars, particularly at Delta’s biggest hubs.

Delta’s response

On Monday, Delta said that upward of half of its IT systems worldwide are Windows-based, and the error on Friday required the airline to repair each and every affected system manually

Delta said one of those systems in particular—the one that schedules crew members—is still having issues because it “is deeply complex and requires the most time and manual support to synchronize,” which is causing the delay in returning to normal operations.

The hope is that the impact wanes into Wednesday and that Delta returns to normal operations sometime this week, at least that’s what Delta CEO Ed Bastian told employees in a video message.

The impact has forced Delta to extend its change fee waiver, which includes all of its flights, through the end of July 23—anyone on a Delta ticket through the end of Tuesday can change their flight to another scheduled through June 28 without fee.

Aside from extending that travel waiver, Delta is also offering impacted guests a few other options. Those on flights that were canceled or significantly delayed can opt to cancel and receive an eCredit or refund. Those travelers will still be awarded their miles through Delta’s SkyMiles program, too.

Anyone who has incurred hotel, meal, or ground transportation expenses due to the delta can also submit expenses for reimbursement (Delta does not reimburse prepaid expenses).

Department of Transportation response

DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Tuesday that the DOT has opened an investigation into Delta Air Lines “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 said on Monday.

While passengers are still advised to try to solve their issues with Delta directly, the DOT has opened up a portal for consumer complaints against Delta.