Delta Air Lines may be starting to turn a corner with their internal operations finally, after melting down on Friday, cancelling thousands of flights (nearly 3 times as many as in all of 2019 and more cancellations than in all of 2018 and 2019 combined), and displacing hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Things are going to be very rough today. Customers aren’t going to experience the improvements yet. While the numbers will get much worse than this, so far ‘only’ 12% of Delta flights have been cancelled today and another 11% delayed. (In contrast, neither American nor Southwest have cancelled even 1% of flights.)
Delta still hasn’t recovered from the CrowdStrike mess. ATL is filled with bags. My flight to NYC was cancelled at the last minute & Delta booked me on a flight that took off an hour before the cancellation. The app just say “oops, we’re sorry.” In line to rebook with 100 others pic.twitter.com/AZUFkruJ00
— Brendan Keefe – Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) July 23, 2024
The biggest systems problem has been the airline’s inability to keep track of its crew and assign them to flights.
A huge backlog of data just could be processedThey were running multiple parallel systems to catch up, but those then needed to be syncedCustomers have even heard announcements in terminals asking for anyone that can fly planes to raise their hand
The consequences of this have been planes out of position and crews out of position, and the airline not sure where all the pieces are. That means employees timing out rather than being able to fly, and planes not receiving their scheduled overnight maintenance. There’s a backlog of people and machines, not just computer data, that will need to catch up once systems are fully restored.
However it does appear that systems are coming back. Aviation watchdog JonNYC reports real progress on crew tracking, though it remains a huge challenge.
DL: Crew Tracking queue is below 1,000 for first time since Friday.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 23, 2024
Meanwhile, though Delta CEO Ed Bastian says he told off Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that Delta doesn’t need reminding about its obligations to customers, there are plenty of reports of passengers sleeping in the airport after being told that no hotel or meal vouchers would be made available. Southwest was much more generous with customers when it melted down a year and a half ago. And the DOT has opened an investigation. Delta can expect pressure to do more for passengers, along with fines (for which they’ll receive credit for the value of reimbursements provided).
.@USDOT has opened an investigation into Delta Air Lines to ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions.
All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 23, 2024
The biggest problem is that Delta hasn’t admitted the problem and taken public ownership of it. They screwed up – big time – and they’re still blaming forces outside their control. Delta is an airline, and airlines fail. They have antiquated technology and even laid off IT staffers last fall. They refuse to deviate from their superiority narrative in the face of evidence to the contrary about this last week where they’ve underperformed everybody else in the world.