Anika Begay
A Delta Airlines Airbus A319-114 taxis into Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from Las Vegas on May 5, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images
Delta Airlines Thursday said last month Crowd strike The disruption and subsequent mass cancellations of flights cost it approximately $550 million and reiterated that it is pursuing legal action against the company and Microsoft.
The financial impact includes a $380 million decline in revenue in the current quarter “primarily due to refunds to customers for canceled flights and the provision of compensation to customers in the form of cash and SkyMiles,” the Atlanta-based airline said in a securities filing.
The incident, which canceled about 7,000 flights, also resulted in $170 million in expenses “associated with the technology-related power outage and subsequent operational restoration,” the airline said, adding that its fuel bill will likely be $50 million lower because of the canceled flights.
Delta has struggled more than its competitors to recover from the July 19 outage that knocked millions of Windows-based computers offline around the world. The outages came at the height of the summer travel season, leaving thousands of Delta customers stranded, a rare incident for the carrier that touts itself as a premium carrier that gets top marks for reliability.
“An operational disruption of this duration and magnitude is unacceptable, and our customers and employees deserve better,” CEO Ed Bastian said in the complaint. “Since the incident, our people have returned the business to an industry-leading position, consistent with the level of performance our customers have come to expect from Delta.”
