US DOT opens investigation into Delta’s response to CrowdStrike tech outage

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Transportation has opened an investigation into Delta Air Lines’ struggles to recover from last week’s worldwide CrowdStrike outage. 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on Tuesday that the agency started the investigation to ensure Delta is following federal law and taking care of customers.

“All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld, Buttigieg wrote on X.

FlightAware reports that more than 400 flights have been canceled so far on Tuesday morning at the Atlanta airport. Most of those are Delta flights.

In a statement, a Delta spokesperson said the airline was cooperating with the investigation.

“We remain entirely focused on restoring our operation after cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike’s faulty Windows update rendered IT systems across the globe inoperable,” the spokesperson said. “Across our operation, Delta teams are working tirelessly to care for and make it right for customers impacted by delays and cancellations as we work to restore the reliable, on-time service they have come to expect from Delta.”

As part of the investigation, the agency is asking passengers who believe Delta has not complied with travel protections to submit a complaint here.

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Pete Buttigieg criticizes Delta cancelations

In an update on Monday, the airline’s chief executive said it would take “another couple days” before “the worst is clearly behind us.” 

While other carriers were returning to normal levels of service disruptions, Delta’s chief information officer said that the airline was still trying to fix a vital crew-scheduling program.

On Sunday, Buttigieg spoke to Delta CEO Ed Bastian about the airline’s high number of cancelations. Buttigieg said his agency had received “hundreds of complaints” about Delta, and he expects the airline to provide hotels and meals for travelers who are delayed and to issue quick refunds to customers who don’t want to be rebooked on a later flight.

“I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections,” Buttigieg wrote on X, calling the reports of disruptions “unacceptable.”

“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” he said. He vowed to help Delta passengers by enforcing air travel consumer-protection rules.

Delta has canceled more than 5,500 flights since the outage started early Friday morning. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of all cancelations worldwide on Monday, including nearly all the ones in the United States.

United Airlines was the next-worst performer since the onset of the outage, canceling nearly 1,500 flights. United canceled only 17 Monday flights by late morning, however.

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What’s causing the Delta flight cancelations?

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a message to customers over the weekend that the airline was continuing to restore operations that were disrupted. One of the tools Delta uses to track crews was affected and could not process the high number of changes triggered by the outage.

“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our re-accommodation capabilities,” Bastian wrote. Loads are the percentage of sold seats on each flight.

Delta passengers try to find their bags after cancelled and delayed flights at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on July 22, 2024 in Atlanta. (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

Airlines have large, layered technology systems, and crew-tracking programs are often among the oldest systems. When the outage began Friday, it also affected systems used to check in passengers and make pre-flight calculations about aircraft weight and balance, airlines reported. United and American reported intermittent problems communicating with crews in the air, contributing to their decisions to briefly ground all flights.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.