Early Friday morning, we saw a major global IT outage, impacting all kinds of industries, including many airlines. In the United States, all of the “big three” US carriers — American, Delta, and United — were impacted by this.
What’s interesting to see is how inconsistent the recovery has been between airlines. Delta is in absolute meltdown mode, with no end to this disaster in sight.
Delta horribly underperforms peers with recovery
FlightAware publishes data on flight cancelations and delays, and it’s interesting to look at how that has played out over the past few days. Among the big three US carriers, operational performance has essentially been the inverse of financial performance. American has recovered best, followed by United, followed by Delta. Let’s look at some of the statistics.
On Friday, July 19, 2024:
- Delta cancelled 1,207 (39%) flights, and delayed 1,867 (49%) flights
- United cancelled 694 (22%) flights, and delayed 1,898 (61%) flights
- American cancelled 408 (11%) flights, and delayed 1,757 (47%) flights
On Saturday, July 20, 2024:
- Delta cancelled 1,194 (36%) flights, and delayed 1,426 (43%) flights
- United cancelled 447 (15%) flights, and delayed 1,118 (38%) flights
- American cancelled 44 (1%) flights, and delayed 1,305 (35%) flights
On Sunday, July 21, 2024:
- Delta cancelled 1,377 (36%) flights, and delayed 1,584 (42%) flights
- United cancelled 266 (9%) flights, and delayed 719 (24%) flights
- American cancelled 92 (2%) flights, and delayed 1,638 (43%) flights
On Monday, July 22, 2024 (as of 6AM ET):
- Delta cancelled 578 (15%) flights, and delayed 97 (2%) flights
- United cancelled 12 (0%) flights, and delayed 43 (1%) flights
- American cancelled 36 (1%) flights, and delayed 87 (2%) flights
It’s worth emphasizing that the numbers for Delta are way worse than the above even suggests. Delta’s wholly owned regional subsidiary, Endeavor Air, has been having the same issues as Delta, so the numbers there are really bad as well, worse than at the regionals of the other US carriers.
I expect that Delta’s delay and cancelation numbers will increase significantly throughout Monday (way more than at American and United), and it’ll be several days before the airline is running anything resembling a reliable operation.
Why is Delta struggling so much right now?
It seems like American, Delta, and United, were all impacted by the same initial problem, but the recoveries have been wildly different, so what’s going on here?
As you can see, Delta’s numbers are absolutely brutal. On Friday, 88% of Delta flights were delayed or cancelled, on Saturday, 79% of flights were delayed or cancelled, and on Sunday, 78% of flights were delayed or cancelled. That’s not good at all. Yet when you go to Delta’s flight status page, the airline throws in your face how it’s the “on-time machine,” heh.
The current Delta meltdown feels a whole lot like the Southwest meltdown in December 2022, in terms of the operation getting to a point where it’s basically just not functioning. And that seems to be for good reason, as the challenge with the recovery has the same root cause.
Long story short, Delta reached a critical level of flight cancelations where the company’s scheduling software stopped working. Now pilots and flight attendants are having to be assigned to trips manually, and that’s an incredibly complex process. This is also exactly what happened with Southwest a couple of years ago.
Here’s how Delta CEO Ed Bastian explains this issue in an open letter:
Like many companies worldwide, Delta was impacted on Friday morning by an outside vendor technology issue, which prompted us to pause flying while our systems were offline.
The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our reaccommodation capabilities. I want to apologize to every one of you who have been impacted by these events. Delta is in the business of connecting the world, and we understand how difficult it can be when your travels are disrupted.
Specifically, the issue impacted the Microsoft Windows operating system. 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.
Bottom line
A major global IT outage caused big issues for airlines over the past few days. What’s interesting is how differently the situation has evolved for airlines. American has recovered pretty nicely (for once), United is struggling but improving, and Delta is in a horrible spot.
While several airlines dealt with the same initial issue, Delta’s crew planning software has largely stopped working, and crews are having to be assigned to trips manually. That’s no small task, especially with so many planes and crews out of place
If you’re flying any airline in the coming days, I wouldn’t necessarily count on everything going as planned. And if you’re flying Delta, I’d basically count on it not going as planned.
Are any OMAAT readers caught up in Delta’s operational issues?
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