Delta Air Lines canceled about 680 flights Tuesday as it attempts to recover from a computer outage that wreaked havoc on its operations Monday.
That’s on top of the 1,000 flights Atlanta-based Delta canceled Monday after a loss of power led to a computer outage affecting its flights worldwide.
Even after its computer systems were up and running again, the cancellations and delays have continued.
Delta’s chief operating officer Gil West said in a written statement Tuesday that some of the airline’s systems are still unstable, including slowness in systems used to check customers in, conduct boarding and dispatch planes.
He said what caused the problem was a power control module at Delta’s technology command center that malfunctioned, “causing a surge to the transformer and a loss of power.” Power was restored but some systems and network equipment didn’t switch over to backups.
Delta said the company is now focusing on “promptly moving departures at the airline’s Atlanta hub, the world’s busiest.”
“It’s really frustrating,” said Tatjana Drachenberg, a traveler from Germany whose flight to Atlanta was delayed five hours, causing her to miss her connecting flight to Charleston. She arrived Monday evening at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and “pretty much slept on the floor, got hardly any sleep.”
Three subsequent flights to Charleston were canceled, she said, and it was unclear whether the next flight she was rebooked on would be canceled as well.
“It’s just really chaos. No one can tell you anything,” Drachenberg said.
In the congested concourses overnight, she said, where thousands of travelers crowded into gate areas and walkways and stood in long lines trying to get information about their flights, “they had a really long wait, just for a simple question like, ‘What do I do next?”
On the concourse, “you have no place to sit. There were a lot of people sitting on the floors and sleeping on the floors,” Drachenberg said.
Many hotels were booked and rental cars were taken, leaving few options for stranded travelers. With thousands of people crowded onto the concourse for hours on end, some travelers were running out of cell phone battery and laptop power while struggling to get customer service help from Delta. Some said they waited in line for up to three hours trying to get customer service help.
Some were traveling with small children or babies and stuck overnight in the crowded airport.
“The children were getting fussy,” said Richard Tatro, a traveler from New Hampshire who was connecting in Atlanta and trying to get to Tucson since Monday. “The concourses were just crazy.”
Tatro travels often for work and has been flying for 40 years, and said, “This is the absolute worst experience I’ve ever encountered.”
“It’s been horrible,” Tatro said on Tuesday. “Right now there’s a lot of people that will never fly Delta ever again.”
He said Delta front-line workers were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people.
“They should have had every Delta higher-up on the floor, talking to people,” Tatro said.
Delta said travelers should check their flight status on Delta's website or its app, and can rebook via the website, the airline said. Delta is waiving certain change fees for customers who were scheduled to travel Monday or Tuesday and want to change their travel plans to later in the week.
Delta is also giving $200 in travel vouchers to those whose flights are canceled or whose flights are delayed more than three hours.
Delta’s senior vice president of operations, Dave Holtz, said in a written statement that the airline is “still operating in recovery mode.”
“We are sorry for what many of our customers have experienced over the past 24 hours, including those who remain at airports and continue waiting for their flights,” he said, adding that the airline expects additional delays and cancellations.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized in a video message Monday for the inconvenience to customers.
The computer system failure happened after a power outage in Atlanta that began at about 2:30 a.m. Monday morning, according to Delta.
“Following the power loss, some critical systems and network equipment didn’t switch over to Delta’s backup systems. Delta’s investigation into the causes is ongoing,” the company said in a written statement.
Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said a failure overnight of Delta’s switchgear equipment caused the outage. He said other Georgia Power customers were not affected because it was an issue with Delta equipment.
