[Update, July 24, 9:00 am]Delta CEO Ed Bastian in a Wednesday statement again apologized for Delta's performance but said Wednesday cancellations would be "minimal" with Thursday "expected to be a normal day, with the airline fully recovered."
[Original report] Delta Air Lines' woes following Friday's CrowdStrike-originated IT outage continued on Tuesday with 474 flights canceled for 13 percent of its schedule, and 1,317 flights delayed for 37 percent of its schedule as of 6 p.m., according to data from FlightAware.
The carrier has canceled more than 5,000 flights since Friday, and that got the attention of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is opening an investigation into the carrier.
Secretary Pete Buttigieg on X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook Tuesday said DOT opened the investigation to "ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions. … Our department will leverage the full extent of our investigative and enforcement power to ensure the rights of Delta's passengers are upheld."
Delta said in a statement that it is in receipt of the DOT notice of investigation and is fully cooperating. "Across our operation, Delta teams are working tirelessly to care for and make it right for customers impacted by delays and cancellations as we work to restore the reliable, on-time service they have come to expect from Delta," according to the carrier
DOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Delta president Glen Hauenstein spoke at the Global Business Travel Association convention in Atlanta on Tuesday and apologized to attendees but did not address the DOT investigation.
"I want to start with an apology," Hauenstein said at a general session at the convention. "We were impacted dramatically by the CrowdStrike situation that happened at the end of last week. We have been working around the clock to try and recover, unfortunately our recovery [has been] more sluggish than some of our competitors. Unfortunately, we're painfully aware of that. … Tomorrow we should be well on our way back to normal operations with the target being back by Thursday and Friday."
Delta extended its travel waiver through July 28. It also has set up a baggage command center in Atlanta, where the carrier is seeing the highest number of displaced bags, and is "leveraging all of our delivery partners" to return bags to customers at their homes or final travel destinations, the carrier said.
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