Delta flight cancellations pile up for second day
Passengers are still left stranded as Delta tries to recover from Monday's power outage.
- She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
Many Delta passengers are still stranded after large-scale flight cancellations.
The travel woes continue for Delta passengers.
The airline canceled roughly 530 flights Tuesday, which marks the second day of problems following a power outage early Monday in Atlanta. The outage, which knocked out Delta's computer system, led to the cancellation of about 1,000 of the 6,000 flights scheduled for Monday, as well as delays for many more.
Gil West, Delta's chief operating officer, explained in a post Tuesday that a critical power control module at its technology command center malfunctioned Monday, which caused a surge to the transformer and the subsequent loss of power. Though power was restored quickly, various systems and network equipment that should have switched over to backups didn't. Delta is still experiencing instability with these systems.
The cancellations, which have left thousands of passengers stranded, are a black eye for Delta and illustrate how dependent companies have become on technology.
In a blog post Tuesday, Delta said the company is working to "reset operations."
"We were able to bring our systems back online and resume flights within a few hours yesterday but we are still operating in recovery mode," Dave Holtz, senior vice president for operations and customer center, said in the post.
Meanwhile, Delta is regularly tweeting information on cancellations and travel waivers. Delta CEO Ed Bastian released a video Monday apologizing for inconveniencing passengers.
This incident comes just a few weeks after an outage at Southwest Airlines led to the cancellation of about 2,300 flights over four days.
Update, 12:05 p.m. PT: Updates with statement from Delta chief operating officer.