Delta begins limited flights amid global computer shutdown
A Delta Air Lines computer meltdown messed up flights worldwide Monday, causing cancellations and delays that continued to plague travelers throughout the day.
The debacle comes on the heels of a Southwest Airlines computer outage in July and is unacceptable, DePaul University transportation professor Joseph Schwieterman said.
"This is becoming a pattern for the airline industry that's disturbing. Outages can wipe out a good portion of the day," he said.
The airline blamed a power outage in Atlanta, a Delta hub, for knocking out its computer system at about 1:30 a.m., sparking a ground stop and more than 740 cancellations. The airline resumed limited operations at 7:40 a.m. and as of 6 p.m. had operated 3,340 of the 6,000 scheduled flights for Monday.
Delays for O'Hare International Airport travelers on Delta ranged from two to nearly three hours. Delays at Midway International Airport were up to three hours.
Business traveler Mike Kolacki of Chicago waited at the Delta counter at O'Hare hoping for a Plan B. His 12:45 p.m. departure to Atlanta was delayed until 4:30 p.m. and his connection on another flight to Fort Lauderdale was canceled.
"Hopefully, I won't have to spend the night in Atlanta," he said. "It seems we have more and more computer problems with airlines all the time. It is a bummer but you have to live with it and my number got called today."
Delta averages 49 daily departures from O'Hare and 19 from Midway, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
"O'Hare is running jam-packed, so delays will ripple through for the next day or so," Schwieterman said.
"Everyone understands glitches occur but six hours is a disaster for a global airline. It's going to take days to recover with so many people stranded everywhere," said Schwieterman, director of DePaul's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.
Airline officials said "some critical systems and network equipment didn't switch over to Delta's backup systems," when the power went and it is investigating the breakdown.
Adding to passengers' misery was the fact Delta's flight status system went awry, meaning the website and airport screens initially were erroneously telling everyone flights were on time.
Delta CEO Ed Bastien told fliers "I apologize for the challenges this is creating for you," adding "all hands are on deck" to fix the problems.
As of late Monday, Delta officials were still advising the public to check their flight status with delta.com and the Fly Delta App.
Such failures and lack of redundant systems to compensate for problems need to be rectified, Schwieterman said.
"There are few industries that suffer from this problem as severely," he said. "I can't think of another industry where the whole operation has to be shut down (for computer problems). Everyone is surprised this far into the technical era there doesn't appear to be solution coming soon."
A travel waiver is being offered on all Delta flights allowing passengers to obtain a refund or make a one-time change to tickets without fees.
For more information on the travel waiver go to www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/advisories/system-outage.html.