Travel Impact from Friday’s CrowdStrike Disaster Continues

The fallout from Friday’s CrowdStrike disaster, which shut down industries across the global economy, continued through the weekend. And while systems and services are restored and working properly, travelers can expect the impact to continue at least on Monday.

According to flight tracking software FlightAware, more than 2,100 U.S. flights were canceled on Saturday, and another 2,100 were canceled on Sunday.

Those cancellations were spread through several major U.S. airports, including Minneapolis-St. Paul International (MSP), Detroit Metro Wayne Co. (DTW), LaGuardia (LGA), Salt Lake City (SLC), and Los Angeles International (LAX).

The airport most impacted was Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International (ATL), which saw close to 400 departures canceled on Sunday and more than 340 canceled on Saturday. Travelers at Hartsfield, Delta’s hub, complained about long lines at check-in desks into Sunday.

According to FlightAware, things seemed to be recovering as of Monday morning at 6:30 a.m., with just 700 flights canceled so far. More than 600 of those 700 are on Delta, which continues to be the most impacted carrier. That number is expected to grow through the morning on Monday and could last further into the week as Delta is still reportedly struggling to amend its schedule and shift its crew, in light of Friday’s disaster.

Delta’s response

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said on Sunday that the timing couldn’t have been worse for Friday’s outage.

“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our reaccommodation capabilities,” Bastian said in a message.

“I want to apologize to every one of you who have been impacted by these events. Delta is in the business of connecting the world, and we understand how difficult it can be when your travels are disrupted.”

“Canceling a flight is always a last resort and something we don’t take lightly,” he added.

Delta is currently the only major U.S. airline to extend its change waiver into Monday. Delta’s waiver includes all of its flights and runs through the end of July 22. The waiver allows for travel to be rebooked through July 27.

Because of the system outage, Delta is also not allowing unaccompanied minors to travel by themselves through July 23.

Airline obligations

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) categorized the flight cancellations that came from the CrowdStrike outage as “controllable,” which means that they were “attributable to the airline.”

That categorization means that airlines have to abide by certain customer service obligations, including rebooking passengers at no cost, offering meal or meal vouchers, providing hotel accommodations and ground transportation, and more.  

The DOT has a live dashboard that shows those obligations carrier-by-carrier, split between cancellations and delays.

DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote on Friday that, despite reports that some airlines were simply offering impacted passengers flight credits, they were obligated to offer their money back.

“I am hearing reports of some airlines only offering flight credits to passengers for canceled flights,” he wrote in a social media post. “Let me be clear — you are entitled to get your money back promptly if your flight is canceled and you don’t take a rebooking.”