All Hands on Deck as Delta Resolves Major Systems Outage
Jackie Reddy August 08, 2016
The failure occurred in the early hours of Monday, resulting in a total ground stop. Delta is working to resume global operations, but has said that passengers should expect delays.
Delta Air Lines is slowly resuming operations after its computer systems were hit by a power outage in the early hours of Monday. The glitch, which began around 02:30 a.m. EDT, resulted in widespread cancellations around the globe and, by 05:00 a.m. EDT, the grounding of over 400 flights.
In a statement, the Atlanta-based carrier has said that, as of 1 p.m. local time, it has been able to run about 1,600 of its 6,000 scheduled flights on Monday.
Reuters has reported that an unnamed piece of the carrier’s equipment failed, causing the widespread outage. State utility operator Georgia Power confirmed that the problem was localized to Delta and tweeted that it was working closely with the airline as it undertook necessary repairs to its system.
In a video posted on Delta’s website, CEO Ed Bastian offered his apologies to all customers affected by the outage. The carrier’s teams, he said, were working around the clock to restore system capabilities.
Bastian also explained that Delta has issued system-wide waivers for affected passengers and urged travelers to make contact with the carrier either via its website or any of its customer service representatives.
Delta has advised that, “Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations. While inquiries are high and wait times are long, our customer service agents are doing everything they can to assist.”
It added that, “There may also be some lag time in the display of accurate flight status at delta.com, the Fly Delta App and from Delta representatives on the phone and in airport.”
The company also tweeted that while it will be investigating the cause of the outage, its immediate focus, “…is on our customers and getting our operations back to normal.”
[Photo: Flickr]
Couldn't have happened to a more arrogant company. Keep Climbing
Yes, mirror your server in multiple locations, and add a back up power generator to each, problem solved, instead thousands of passengers suffer needlessly.
lrp: It's all about optics and serving customers. I live in Dallas and I live alongside many Southwest employees. They felt Gary Kelly let the passengers down and did not proactively addressed what happened with a personal touch. PR 101 is that you get in front of the problem, keep people informed and start compensating people while the problem is going on, not waiting until a few days have passed and then passing the buck like he did. He's about as popular in Dallas as Zika is in Miami.
Because Jethro and Jolene who run Delta's IT department out of Atlanta tripped over a plug.
Gary Kelley commenting after the fact had nothing to do with how the firm handled the incident. Southwest was very good as always with customers according to the many interviews I read.