Delta meltdown and handling of passengers draws scrutiny by U.S. DOT

As Delta Air Lines’ operational meltdown stretched into a fourth day, disrupting trips for hundreds of thousands of people around the world, the carrier’s handling of passengers prompted warnings from U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

As of Monday morning, Atlanta-based Delta had canceled more than 5,000 Delta and Delta Connection flights since the initial global technology outage early Friday morning, according to FlightAware.com. Frustrated passengers have been sleeping overnight at Hartsfield-Jackson and other airports and waiting for hours in long lines that stretch down the terminal.

While other airlines including United have had mass flight cancellations since the outage – which stemmed from security updates related to Microsoft 365 apps and services from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike – Delta has had far more flight cancellations than any other U.S. airline.

It has yet to recover. By about 6 a.m. Monday morning, Delta had already canceled more than more than 575 of its mainline flights for the day, FlightAware data showed. American had canceled about 36 and United had canceled about 12.

Buttigieg spoke with Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday and reminded him of Delta’s obligations to its customers and the DOT’s enforcement authority, according to the DOT.

“We continue to receive reports of unacceptable disruptions and customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints filed with our department,” Buttigieg said in a written statement. “I have made clear to Delta that we expect the airline to provide prompt refunds to consumers who choose not to be rebooked, and free rebooking and timely reimbursements for food and overnight hotel stays to consumers affected by the delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance to all of their passengers.”

The DOT says Delta is legally obligated to care for its passengers and adhere to its commitments to customers, and to inform customers that they are entitled to a refund if a flight is canceled and they opt against a rebooking.

That also prompted Buttigieg to post on the social media platform X about reports of some airlines offering only flight credits to passengers for canceled flights.

“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 in his statement Sunday. “I will ensure that our department supports Delta passengers by enforcing all applicable passenger protections.”

The DOT said the cancellations and delays are considered “controllable,” triggering a higher degree of commitments for handling passengers whose flights are disrupted.

Delta declined to comment on Buttigieg’s comments.

But in a letter to customers Sunday, Bastian apologized to all who were affected by the disruptions.

Bastian also explained a reason behind why Delta’s flights have been so severely disrupted by the outage. The airline still has not restored full functionality to its operation.

He wrote that Delta has “a significant number of applications that use that system, and in particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown.”

“Our teams have been working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality,” Bastian wrote Sunday.

The airline has struggled to get enough crew members to staff its flights, leading in many cases to delay after delay before a flight is ultimately canceled.

In some cases, the airline may get one or two crew members to the gate for a flight, only to have them wait hours for additional crew members and “time out,” or reach their federal time limit for hours on duty.

When that happens and the flight is canceled, Delta loses the use of those crews, while the aircraft and crews don’t make it to the next city for their other flights for the day, and the problem snowballs – across hundreds of flights around the country and the world.

Under different circumstances, Southwest Airlines in December 2022 had a meltdown of its operations that started during the busy Christmas holiday travel period and worsened as days wore on due to problems with its crew scheduling software.

Delta extended a travel waiver to allow customers who had flights booked through Monday to change their travel plans without paying a higher fare with certain conditions.

Bastian encouraged customers to “take advantage of that flexibility if possible.”

Some travel experts have advised travelers to avoid flying Delta while the airline’s operation remains dysfunctional and beleaguered with a backlog of thousands of stranded passengers trying to get home or to their destinations.

Bastian also said the airline continues to “offer meal vouchers, hotel accommodations and transportation where available.” Many Delta customers have said they have not been offered vouchers.

Delta also Sunday said it is offering affected customers an apology and frequent flyer miles or a travel voucher as an “acknowledgment of the disruption,” along with guidance for how to file for reimbursement of unexpected expenses.

Along with the mass flight cancellations, Delta’s “Fly Delta” app has also been overwhelmed by demand and thus plagued by spotty service, while passengers have also encountered hourslong waits for customer service help.

Amid the meltdown, Delta was preparing for its role at a major convention of some of its largest and most important corporate customers starting Monday in Atlanta.

It’s yet to be seen how many of the corporate travel managers who were planning to head to Atlanta for the Global Business Travel Association convention at the Georgia World Congress Center were unable to make it due to the thousands of Delta flight cancellations over the weekend and into Monday.

Delta sent a message Sunday to attendees apologizing to its customers traveling to the convention who had their travel plans disrupted.

The airline told attendees it was “working to resume normal operations.”