The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has opened an investigation into Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) following significant flight disruptions caused by a cyber outage on Friday. The outage, linked to the IT security service CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD), affected Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) systems globally.
Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on X that the investigation aims "to ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions." He emphasized that "all airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld."
After canceling over 1,100 flights on Monday, Delta had already canceled nearly 200 more by 8 a.m. on Tuesday. The airline continues to grapple with delays and cancellations this week as it tries to recover from the global outage.
“In the past week, Delta Air Lines had highest percentage of cancelations at ~15.1% of captured flights,” analysts at Morgan Stanley highlighted.
DAL has faced severe impacts from the disruptions, with delays persisting across its global network throughout the weekend and into Monday. This has resulted in long lines and disrupted travel plans at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
In response to the inconvenience, Delta has announced it will provide travel vouchers and waivers for affected passengers.
Morgan Stanley said the majority of delays and cancellations took place on Friday. Although some airlines managed to resume operations by the afternoon, cancellations continued into Saturday and Sunday.
According to the AlphaWise flight data tracker, approximately 7,655 out of 126,760 tracked flights from nine major U.S. airlines were canceled between July 15th and July 21st, making up about 6% of their scheduled flights. Of the recorded cancellations, around 34% happened on Friday, while 24% occurred on both Saturday and Sunday.