US regulators are investigating how Delta Air Lines The airline considers passengers affected by canceled and delayed flights struggling to recover From global technological disruption.
Transport Secretary Pete Boutique Delta announced the investigation on social media site X on Tuesday to “ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during a series of widespread disruptions.”
“All air travelers have a right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld,” Buttigieg said.
Delta and its Delta Connection partners had canceled about 500 flights on the East Coast by Tuesday afternoon, about two-thirds of all cancellations in the United States, according to tracking site FlightAware.
The crash started Thursday night into Friday morning, after the faulty software was updated Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike More than 8 million Microsoft computers worldwide.
The Atlanta-based carrier has canceled more than 6,600 flights since the outage began, according to figures from FlightAware and travel-data provider Sirium.
Delta said it is cooperating with the investigation.
“After a faulty Windows update by cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike crippled IT systems around the world, we are fully focused on restoring our operations,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement. “Across our operations, Delta teams are working tirelessly to attend to and remediate customers affected by delays and cancellations as we work to restore the reliable, on-time service they expect from Delta.”
Delta says more than half of its technology systems run on Microsoft Windows, including the tool the airline uses to schedule pilots and flight attendants. Systems cannot keep up with the large number of changes triggered by the outage.
The decline at Delta is shocking for an outfit widely viewed as America’s best major airline. Very profitable Before and after infection, and better movement activity. Delta has consistently ranked at the top of all US carriers for on-time performance.
The Department of Transportation said it launched the investigation after seeing Delta’s series of widespread flight disruptions “and reports of customer service failures.”
The department said the investigation stems from “processing the high volume of consumer complaints we have already received against Delta.”
Investigators may focus on whether Delta complied with federal rules and promptly refunded passengers whose flights were canceled or significantly delayed. In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Delta said to a passenger whose flight was canceled Saturday, “If you choose not to rebook your trip, your ticket value will automatically be available as an eCredit that can be applied to a future Delta ticket. “
In Washington, lawmakers are beginning to weigh in. Sen, who chairs the Senate committee that oversees airlines. Rep. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said in a letter to Delta CEO Ed Bastian that she was “concerned” that Delta was not in compliance. Passenger rights That is in a law Congress passed in May.
“Although the technical malfunction was not caused by Delta or any airline, I am concerned that Delta failed to meet the moment and adequately protect the needs of passengers,” Cantwell wrote.
Delta’s meltdown mirrors that of Southwest Airlines Nearly 17,000 flights were cancelled Over 15 days in December 2022. Southwest agreed to pay a partial $35 million fine after a Department of Transportation investigation. $140 million settlement.
Southwest blamed its outage on the winter storm, but other airlines recovered within a day or two, Southwest did not. Consumer advocates are seeing a similar pattern with Delta this month — the airline blaming the CrowdStrike outage while competitors like American quickly recovered. United Airlines, the second-worst for cancellations, also got back on track on Monday.
“It’s not about what caused the problem, it’s about how you get out of the problem. It’s an airline experiment,” said William McGee, a former airline dispatcher who is a consumer advocate at the American Economic Freedom Project, a group critical of big corporations.
