Delta Disruption Nightmare Reverberates Through the Industry

Aug. 9, 2016, was the beginning of a Delta Airlines nightmare that might not be completely over yet. During the overnight hours, a small fire created a power outage that led to the failure of about 300 of 7,000 Delta servers. Those 300 servers were not connected to backup power.

The results of that failure included over 4,000 canceled flights, and customers continue to grumble about the way Delta handled the cancellations and delays. Eventually, Delta executives offered compensation to customers who were affected, which included $200 travel vouchers for those who wanted to rebook their travel, but even that was a source of frustration as the vouchers went only to “significantly affected” customers.

Outages like the one Delta customers and employees experienced are not isolated events. According to the USA Today article, staff from and travelers on several other airlines have experienced disruptions due to technology failures. Southwest Airlines is the most notable with a failure that resulted in more than 2,300 flight cancellations in July of this year that led to a loss of approximately $54 million. The problem is that the four major U.S. airlines in operation today are working on legacy systems that are complicated to maintain because of their ages and the always-on nature of airlines.

It’s become such a concern that, according to The Dallas Morning News article, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey have expressed concerns about IT systems to the leaders of 13 major airlines. They worry about the effects that more disruptions could have not only on travel but also on the global economy.

How will it all work out?

No one is certain just yet.

Delta decision-makers are investing $150 million in upgrades and infrastructure this year. Will that be enough to prevent another outage like the one in August? It’s hard to say, but because upgrading from legacy systems is a multiyear process, commercial travelers should likely expect more problems like this from all of the major airlines over the next few years.

One thing is crystal clear: It’s definitely time to start flying private.