Delta Flights Grounded Worldwide Due To A System Outage

Passengers flying with Delta Air Lines did not get a good start to travelling Monday morning as a computer outage in Atlanta put a ground stop on all Delta flights.

Delta’s system outage comes just a few weeks after Southwest Airlines suffered a similar situation grounding over 1,000 flights.  Apparently the problems started around 3 a.m. according to reports on social media.

Flights that were already in the air were operating normal, but any flights about to take off were sent back to the gate.  Passengers vented on social media about not being able to check in for their flights and even worse, some people were stuck on planes still sitting on the tarmac.  One Flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles was grounded with passengers on the plane for more than four hours.  A passenger on the flight told CNN that the pilot announced that they had ordered pizza for the passengers as they waited for more news.

It seems the lack of information was the most frustrating as screens in airports and info on the Delta app still read that flights were taking off on time, yet passengers couldn’t get checked in.

Delta issued the following statement on their website:

10:40 a.m. ET UPDATE: Delta has canceled approximately 300 flights due to a power outage impacting Delta operations systemwide. As of 10:30 a.m. ET, Delta operated 800 of its nearly 6,000 scheduled flights. While systems are improving and flights are resuming, delays and cancellations continue.

 

A travel waiver is in effect:http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/advisories/system-outage.html.

 

Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations. While inquiries are high and wait times are long, our customer service agents are doing everything they can to assist. There may also be some lag time in the display of accurate flight status at delta.com, the Fly Delta App and from Delta representatives on the phone and in airport.

 

We apologize to customers who are affected by this issue, and our teams are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

Delta officials said the airline would offer full refunds to anyone whose flight was “significantly delayed” or cancelled. They’re also waiving change fees for passengers who need to make travel adjustments between now and August 12^th.