Delta cancels nearly 700 more flights in wake of massive IT outage

Delta has canceled or delayed more than 1,100 flights on Monday as it struggles to recover from a massive technology outage that first froze air travel nationwide on Friday.

The airline canceled about 690 flights and delayed about 420 on Monday, according to the tracking service FlightAware. It comes a day after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Delta for the lingering cancelations and delays from Friday’s outage.

A bug in the security software CrowdStrike shut down computer systems globally on Friday, with airlines being one of the most affected industries. 

Delta was the only airline to still have a significant number of cancelations and delays as of Monday, after it canceled more than 1,300 flights on Sunday and about 1,200 each Friday and Saturday.

“We have received reports of continued disruptions and unacceptable customer service conditions at Delta Air Lines, including hundreds of complaints filed with U.S. DOT,” Buttigieg wrote on the social media platform X on Sunday. “I have made clear to Delta that we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections.”

He also called on the airline to provide proper refunds and hotel accommodations for stranded passengers.

“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” Buttigieg wrote.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized to customers in a statement Sunday, saying the airline was hit especially hard by the tech outage because it relies on CrowdStrike-affected computer systems for its crew management software.

“Cancellations continue on Sunday as Delta’s teams work to recover our systems and restore our operation. Canceling a flight is always a last resort, and something we don’t take lightly,” he wrote.