Delta still struggling with flight disruptions at Charlotte airport after tech outage

Chase Jordan
·2 min read

Four days after a global technology outage struck computer systems Friday, Delta Air Lines is still working to get its operations back on track in Charlotte and other airports.

The company canceled hundreds of flights on Monday, according to media reports and aviation data. Delta’s setback came after a faulty update from cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike for Microsoft Windows.

Delta canceled 13 flights at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Monday and five more as of Tuesday afternoon,according to FlightAware, a website providing real-time updates for the industry. The airline had 18 CLT flights delayed on Monday and nine as of Tuesday afternoon,

The Atlanta-based company said it was unable to confirm how many of the delays at CLT were attributed to the CrowdStrike update.

Delta is “working around the clock” to get operations where they need to be, CEO Ed Bastian said in a video message to employees.

The airline’s information technology teams had to manually repair and reboot each of the affected systems, according to a news update Monday from the company. Additional time was required for applications to synchronize and start communicating with each other.

Systemwide, Delta canceled more than 1,150 flights on Monday and 464 as Tuesday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

Delta extended a travel waiver for customers with flights booked from July 19 through Tuesday. It includes a one-time change to their itinerary with fare differences waived if travel is rebooked on or before July 28.

Customers impacted by the outage may also choose to cancel their travel plans and receive credit for the unflown portion of the trip or they can request a refund online at delta.com/refund.

Delta Air Lines continued to experience problems on Monday after a global technology on Friday.
Delta Air Lines continued to experience problems on Monday after a global technology on Friday.

About CLT operations

Delta only accounts for a sliver of all flights out of the Charlotte airport.

American Airlines, which accounts for about 90% of flights at Charlotte Douglas, has fully recovered, according to spokeswoman Gianna Urgo.

Employees from the company worked together to return to normal operations, just one day after the global outage, according to Urgo.

CLT is second-largest hub for the Fort Worth-Texas company. Charlotte Douglas is the seventh-busiest airport in the world, according to the Airport Council International’s preliminary rankings for 2022.