Delta's woes continue, but airports show minimal delays
Trickle-down angst continued Tuesday for Delta Air Lines passengers after the carrier's computer crash Monday.
As solace for ongoing cancellations and delays, the airline offered apologies and $200 vouchers for inconvenienced fliers.
Delta reported 680 flight cancellations as of late afternoon Tuesday and 1,000 on Monday. Many stranded travelers were still waiting to be accommodated on new flights.
At O'Hare and Midway International airports, a sampling of flights showed minimal delays compared to Monday, when two to three hours was the norm. Most flights were on time Tuesday at both airports, although one Midway departure was 54 minutes behind schedule.
Delta averages 49 daily departures from O'Hare and 19 from Midway, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
The airline blamed a power outage in Atlanta, a Delta hub, for knocking out its computer system early Monday, sparking a ground stop. The airline resumed limited operations after about six hours.
Aviation experts criticized the international carrier for botching the situation, explaining a backup plan should have kicked in.
Airline officials said "some critical systems and network equipment didn't switch over to Delta's backup systems" when the power went, and officials are investigating the breakdown.
The travel voucher is available to Delta fliers who suffered delays of more than three hours or a canceled flight. Passengers who have not been contacted regarding vouchers should fill out a form available at www.delta.com.
Delta also extended a waiver letting inconvenienced fliers switch flights without penalties to travel on Tuesday. For more information, go to www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/advisories/system-outage.html.