Delta Air Lines CEO Admits Carrier’s Response to Global IT Outage Was ‘Frustratingly Slow’

Ed Bastian, Delta Air Lines’ besieged CEO, has admitted that the carrier’s response to the global CrowdStrike IT outage has been “frustratingly slow and complex” in a new email to customers sent to customers on Wednesday.

Nearly a week after the update bug bricked Microsoft Window’s powered machines worldwide and days after other US-based airlines have restored operations to normality, Bastian says Delta is on track to run a normal operation by Thursday.

“While our initial efforts to stabilize the operations were difficult and frustratingly slow and complex, we have made good progress this week and the worst impacts of the CrowdStrike-caused outage are clearly behind us,” Bastian said in the latest apology email to customers.

“Delays and cancellations were down 50% Tuesday compared to Monday, and we anticipate cancellations Wednesday to be minimal,” the email continued. “Thursday is expected to be a normal day, with the airline fully recovered and operating at a traditional level of reliability.”

Confidence in Delta’s famed operational reliability and on-time performance has been seriously rocked by the CrowdStrike outage and while Bastian is doubling down on blaming an external vendor for its operational meltdown woes, Delta is yet to explain why it was so badly affected when other airlines quickly recovered.

The airline has, at the very least, explained the reason behind its operational meltdown, saying that a key crew scheduling tool was taken offline by the CrowdStrike outage.

When engineers eventually managed to get it back up and running, the system was overwhelmed by the sheer number of schedule changes that needed to be processed.

The airline then quickly lost track of where its pilots and flight attendants were located and was forced to cancel and delay thousands of flights because it couldn’t get crews to where they were needed.

That explanation, however, will be of little comfort to the tens of thousands of Delts customers who have been stranded for days on end by this meltdown.

Delta is now promising frequent flyer SkyMiles and travel vouchers as a “further gesture of apology”, along with covering meals and hotel accommodations for delayed passengers.

In line with Department of Transportation (DOT) rules, Delta also says it will offer cash refunds for passengers who choose to abandon their travel plans, although the department has opened an investigation into the airline to make sure it is fulfilling its legal obligations to consumers.

Bastian says that he has “received emails from many of you who are understandably frustrated with the pace of progress and the difficulty in getting the service you deserve” but countered that he has also “received many notes of encouragement and support”.

The tone of Wednesday’s email will leave many angry Delta passengers wondering whether Bastian is showing the right level of contrition and whether the airline is being generous enough with the amount of compensation it is offering customers caught up in this fiasco.