Delta Air Lines continues to perform poorly on Sunday, with more cancellations than any other airline in the world, stemming from poor recovery efforts from the CrowdStrike outage. In percentage terms, about the only airline faring worse than Delta is Endeavor Air which is owned by Delta, although United also still struggles.
Delta cancelled nearly 1,200 flights or over a third of its operation on Saturday, and nearly half of its flights were delayed. (Endeavor Air cancelled 44% of flights.) Spirit also struggled, while American cancelled 1% of flights and Southwest cancelled just… one.
Southwest Airlines was spared by its antiquated tech, such as Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, though this tweet wasn’t actually real.
American crowed deservingly about its ability to recover from the CrowdStrike outage, noting that it had passed before Saturday for the airline. Pushing back on my suggestion that American Airlines benefited from luck being early to have CrowdStrike turn the relevant servers supporting hem off and on, a spokesperson argued,
We devised some creative solutions early on at the IOC and worked closely with the FAA to find workarounds to get our flights dispatched. Wd also had some experts onsite there within 30 minutes of the issues popping up. So probably a bit more than luck!
Delta Air Lines, whose operation usually outperforms peers, seems to also have a harder time recovering from meltdowns. As Joe Brancatelli put it in his excellent ($) newsletter,
What is Delta’s particular problem? Hard to say, but its crews and aircraft are largely out of position and the airline has had a difficult time resetting. It has sent out an all-hands-on-deck plea to pilots and flight attendants asking them to pick up extra segments in hopes of getting back to something like a normal operation.
None of this should surprise you, of course. Despite management’s huffy insistence that Delta is a “premium” operation that runs better than other airlines, the facts show that Delta’s service-recovery processes historically are atrocious. It’s an ongoing issue whenever a glitch–whether internal or external–occurs. Delta seems to have massive difficulty getting back to whatever passes for “normal” in these times.
In practice this means long lines at airports and an inability to even reach customer service.
7/20/2024 10:30 AM Travel Warning
Due to the global IT outage by @CrowdStrike on 7/19, my flight with @Delta at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been canceled twice (7/19 and 7/20). The airport is a ZOO, long lines at the lost baggage & customer service. pic.twitter.com/oGSolX74j5
— Ethan M. Cortazzo (@Ethan_Cortazzo1) July 20, 2024
Delta crews have just as hard a time as customers, and have been stranded around the world. The airline lacked reserve crews to staff planes in order to recover. Saturday for Delta was even worse than Friday.
Passengers report being told they would have to wait 17 hours to message with an agent in the airline’s app:
I live at the airport now. Thanks, @Delta! ✈️ pic.twitter.com/x8F6MLTcso
— Liz Skalka (@lizskalka) July 20, 2024
Turns out that’s nothing, here’s 20 hours, and customers report that estimated wait times got worse from there.
Comment
byu/Stevetd16 from discussion
indelta
When these things happen our focus is usually on the passengers, but let’s not forget how hard it is for the frontline employees who generally don’t get any extra rewards for pressing through it.
I just witnessed a kind @Delta gate employee break down in tears. And frankly I totally get it. People wrongly take out their frustrations on them. I hope Delta plans on giving all the employees who are going through immense stress a really nice bonus. They deserve it
— James Bramble (@BrambleJim) July 21, 2024
The airline was silent from 10 a.m. Saturday forward, saying only before that they were ‘continuing their recovery.’
Delta is a good airline that is not doing very well right now. But it’s also an overrated airline, a result of its own PR machine that persistently beats the drum about how premium it is despite workhorse Boeing 767s whose premium passenger experience lags that of both American and United. This is a strong reminder that though it performs marginally better much of the time, and its crews are marginally friendlier, it’s still an airline and can underperform peers in dramatic ways.
In the coming weeks and or months, it will be telling if any heads roll at Delta. I am not an IT person however, I cannot imagine a single software program or system having the ability or liability to bring your operations to a complete halt.
Hello, helloooo. Timmyboy can you hear me? Are you there???
I guess Timmyboy is stuck in line in an airport somewhere in the USA wondering how it is possible that his beloved, “untouchable” Delta got him in such a mess.
By da way Timmyboy, 2Q 24 numbers more of the same. Delta’s earnings before taxes 2 billion, United’s 1.8 billion. A 200-million difference. Delta’s fuel expenses 2.8 billion (2.64/gallon), United`s 3.1 billion (2.76/gallon). A 300-million difference. So Timmyboy, do ya see it or do I need to do the basic math for ya? The ONLY reason Delta is more profitable than United is the GAMES Bastian plays with the refinery to look more profitable. End of story. Please spare us of more of your bullshit about regions, loyalty program, and operational excellence.
@jsm
Triggered much?
Mayor pete needs to get his shine box.
@jsm
here’s how out of touch Pothole Pete is:
“We’re essentially hobos,” said one stranded passenger; transportation chief Pete Buttigieg reminds passengers of refunds for canceled flights”
So you’re stranded 2000 miles from home… and Ol’ Mayor Pete says Don’t Forget Your Refund and Ask For Your SkyPesos! Some comfort from the guy in charge of a transportation system that’s supposed to reliably move millions of people per day. Right.
….when DL bought NWA and took it over, the first thing I noticed was DL was all smoke and mirrors….NWA had a bad reputation with the customers because they were harsh and stingy…but their operations and recovery systems were top notch…..DL was loved by the flying public but if you knew what to look for or see the inside, you knew things weren’t as DL made them seem….then COVID happens and DL buys out 30,000 of their most experienced front line employees….the folks that knew what to do and how to do it…..welp…..you’re seeing the end product now in my personal opinion….I drive when I can…..just easier…..hard to drive to London, I get it….but if I have an option…..
Making matters worse, Ed Bastian’s emails to all customers now was a master class in what not to do. How can it still be Microsoft’s fault when EVERY other airline has recovered?
Seems tomorrow might not be any better. Several of us fly BNA-RDU weekly. Usually Southwest since they have several direct a day each way. An employee asked last week if I cared if they flew Delta since that’s who they use personally and they wanted the Sky Pesos. Price was about the same after adding the early bird crap so I told them that was fine. Just got a text from them saying the 8:50 tomorrow is already cancelled. Well Southwest it is. And I have status on Delta from international trips but am loyal to none. Except American. I would crawl through a desert of broken glass and swim an ocean of alcohol before I step on one of their planes.
A premium catastrophe to be sure. No minor ones for Delta.
Posts like this are written to bring out the Delta haters. They dutifully respond.
I understood them having to cancel a flight. My beef was that they knew about it and even sent out “warning” emails the day before but didn’t actually cancel the flight until a couple hours before the flight so that we had no time to find other alternatives. It’s just pure greed!
@kenneth–
“NWA had a bad reputation with the customers because they were harsh and stingy…but their operations and recovery systems were top notch….”
We were good at what we did. Say what you will about NW, but at least agents were equipped with the tools/systems to do their job.
except, of course, Kevin, when management locked out the AMFA and NW’s planes were held together by duct tape and bailing wire.
If cell phones were near as prevalent as they are today, NW would have made UA’s rash of maintenance mistakes – tires falling off etc – look like child’s play.
Let’s face it. DL AND UA both have cloud-based IT systems that are state of the art. No one expected a 2 bit vendor could take down half of the computers in the world because they couldn’t get one fairly small section of code right.
DL’s crew tracking systems should be running in parallel in multiple systems – WN’s commodore computer could be one of them – but crew tracking systems clearly are the MOST essential part of an airline that NOT running multiple backups will be fatal.
And for those that want to gloat about how well United’s technology is, they are now in THEIR 3rd day of double digit cancellations.
The only reason they aren’t in a worse position is because their mainline operation is so much smaller than DL’s.
UA operates 750 flights/day LESS mainline flights than DL and UA doesn’t control any of its regional airlines so they can’t dictate the way their regional carriers operate -and continually have to pay more to keep those regional carriers flying for UA.
All NW did was deliver a workforce that was ready to get rid of unions, Kevin. and that happened other than for pilots that pre-ordained the merger.
Smooth sailing on flight 6 of 6 on United today. Sat next to two people so far who bought tickets on UA because DL couldn’t do anything for them.
Where’s Tom Brady?
pray tell, what is your itinerary if it takes you SIX flights to get somewhere on United’s network or do you just have nothing better to do than sit on airplane seats all day long?
@ Tim — State of the art, or “premium”? Great investment of their momey!
“And for those that want to gloat about how well United’s technology is, they are now in THEIR 3rd day of double digit cancellations.
The only reason they aren’t in a worse position is because their mainline operation is so much smaller than DL’s.
UA operates 750 flights/day LESS mainline flights than DL and UA doesn’t control any of its regional airlines so they can’t dictate the way their regional carriers operate -and continually have to pay more to keep those regional carriers flying for UA.”
Timmyboy and his usual bullshit and obsession with United. Timmyboy you have no respect for factual numbers. Why are you so obsessed with United? Maybe because Kirby is kicking Bastian’s ass?
Here goes your dose of reality liar.
Friday cancellations: Delta 32% of their flights, United 22%
Saturday: Delta 36%, United 15%
So far today: Delta 25%, United 9%
You’re a joke Timmyboy.
Ah and I almost forget to remind you Timmyboy.
April 15: DAL stock 46.65, last friday 45.44. Down 2.6%
April 15: UAL stock 41.04, last friday 47.93. Up 17%
It’s written on the wall Timmyboy. After the last two reports, UAL has been kicking DAL`s ass,
I’ve been warning you all along, but you wouldn’t listen. The market is noticing what reality is, and when Bastian needed more than the fuel game, he comes up with a meltdown.
My view from the inside. DL should have followed AA in cancelation of most flights on Friday. AA was able to restart quicker. DL so afraid to cancel flights to keep up with the norm created a bigger problem. Now crews are stranded in the wrong locations. More flights ended up canceling in the long run because DL was so worried about reputation that they refused to cancel flights at the beginning. Now the whole network is so jacked up with crew issues flights are canceling at departure time because of no crew.
UAL is worth precisely 54% of DAL’s value.
If UAL is doing such a great job, then the memo hasn’t gotten to the same Wall Street firms that own most of the big 4 airlines.
UAL’s market cap relation to DAL hasn’t changed in years.
Tim Dunn is the proud owner of the world’s only pair of Delta branded kneepads
But but but…. Delta still had over 1000 cancellations today. United had over 400. AA only had 33.
AA wins the day, maybe the week. Those unsupported windows 95 machines continue to chug away.
And the sad part is American says it’s operating normally and over 1500 flights have been delayed today.
I flew delta last week and wasn’t very impressed. It was like any other domestic carrier. Actually the first plane didn’t have TV or streaming TV and the WiFi didn’t work the entire flight. The second flight was a 757 and the seat was very uncomfortable. I got a coke and a snack like I would on any other airline. What’s the fascination with all these airlines. It’s the same stuff. Eat your biscoff and just shut up.
Can’t agree more. As someone who spends a ton of money between business and personal with delta, I found their customer service to be terrible. No one even attempted to try to help.
@Tim Dunn: Of course United has control over their contract regional flying as well. If they need to cancel a flight – they will let the Republics, Skywests etc. know and they will do it. Happens for example during every weather event. Contract flyers are also not always more expensive than in-house flyers. The contract flyers seem in this case more reliable than in-house Endeavor.
AA seem have restarted the operation better than Delta or United.
We were talking about a percentage of canceled flying – so it doesn’t matter if Delta has more mainline flights or not.
You are invested into Delta so you have an interest to write them better as they are. But in this case AA recovered better than Delta and UA. Delta canceled a way bigger % of flights than UA. Just the facts. AA at almost 0 now, UA improving to 9% but Delta still at over 30% cancelations today plus Endeavor at 23%.
@Tim
You have no credibility because you never admit when DL makes a mistake. They are running a shit show of an operation and you won’t acknowledge it. If the situation were reversed and AA or UA was performing at DL’s level, you would be the first to attack.
“We were talking about a percentage of canceled flying – so it doesn’t matter if Delta has more mainline flights or not.”
Exactly. Whether or not a flight is a mainline or a connection carrier really only matters to people on forums like this. For 99.99% of travelers, they just know their flight on “Delta” (or AA, or UA) was canceled.
I went through the apocalypse in Atlanta, and got lucky: I was able to score a night at the luxurious Ramada Plaza. Delta, for their part, insisted to me that they were not at fault to me for the gross negligence of their contractor, that they had no duty of care to EU-originating passengers, and that everyone was having the same problem.
I was on the first shuttle of the morning back to the airport, leaving the hotel at the same time as the last of the meretricial services team. At 6AM, the security line had already escaped the corrals.
The airside campgrounds at the “busiest and most efficient airport in the world” were something to see.
My new flight, the first scheduled one to the destination after the previous was cancelled, was only half-full. Pushback was forty minutes late, due to a missing FA. It landed on time.
This is what happens when upper management in IT and the C level get sold a bill of goods. Everyone is so sold on cloud and AI and whatever else is the buzzword of the day.
And yes there are benefits to new technology, like savings in hardware and headcount, there are also big negatives with cloud, like we’ve seen one vendors screw up having such large repercussions.
There is NO excuse for ANY large company not to have a backup on-premise system for critical operations. And further, they should never update ANY critical business systems without testing those updates on a test system. No automatic updates should ever be allowed on Production systems.
If these two processes were followed, there wouldn’t have been such a impact.
This is the dark side of cloud. Instead of one company’s systems going down, everyone’s systems go down.
And MS should better handle this sort of error in booting of their systems. Yes, you don’t want a bad actor to bypass your boot system security, but there should be a way for valid users to bypass using a code or some other authentication mechanism.
Oh,.and Crowdstrike CEO and CIO / CTO and lower managers who allowed such a careless IT QA should be fired without any golden parachutes. It’s the least they deserve.
NWA staff now working for Delta are not allowed to bemoan how much better things were at NWA, especially when Steven Rothmeier owned Northwest.