PHOTOS: Day four of outage at Hartsfield-Jackson airport

Atlanta Airport News

PHOTOS: Day four of outage at Hartsfield-Jackson airport

Airline passengers are still grappling with fallout from the CrowdStrike outage. Delta Air Lines has been greatly affected, canceling hundreds of fllights.

As of Monday morning, Atlanta-based Delta has canceled more than 5,000 Delta and Delta Connection flights since the initial global technology outage early Friday morning. -- Text by Kelly Yamanouchi/AJC. Photos by John Spink/AJC.

Frustrated passengers have been sleeping overnight at Hartsfield-Jackson and other airports, and waiting for hours in long lines that stretch down the terminal.

As Delta Air Lines’ operational meltdown stretches into a fourth day, disrupting trips for hundreds of thousands of people around the world, the carrier’s handling of passengers has now prompted warnings from U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

While some other airlines including United have had mass flight cancellations since the outage — which stemmed from security updates related to Microsoft 365 apps and services from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike — Delta has had far more flight cancellations than any other U.S. airline.

Delta declined to comment on Buttigieg’s comments. But in a letter to customers Sunday, Bastian apologized to all who were affected by the disruptions.

He wrote that Delta has “a significant number of applications that use that system, and in particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown. Our teams have been working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality,” Bastian wrote Sunday.

The DOT says Delta is legally obligated to care for its passengers and adhere to its commitments to customers, and to inform customers that they are entitled to a refund if a flight is canceled and they opt against a rebooking.

“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” Buttigieg said in his statement Sunday. “I will ensure that our department supports Delta passengers by enforcing all applicable passenger protections.”

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As of Monday morning, Atlanta-based Delta has canceled more than 5,000 Delta and Delta Connection flights since the initial global technology outage early Friday morning. -- Text by Kelly Yamanouchi/AJC. Photos by John Spink/AJC.