CNN
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More than 1,500 U.S. flights have been canceled for the third day in a row as airlines struggle to recover from a health crisis. global technology failure which left thousands of passengers stranded at airports.
About 1,600 flights into, within and out of the United States were canceled Sunday night, while more than 8,500 U.S. flights were delayed, according to the tracking website. FlightAware.com.
More than 1,000 of those cancellations were from Delta Air Lines, the website says.
The airline continues its recovery efforts following “a technology issue related to an external supplier” causing delays and cancellations, Delta said Sunday. The airline is communicating directly with some affected customers, offering them travel vouchers, waivers and SkyMiles miles, it said.
In an update to Delta customers Sunday afternoon, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the airline's teams are still working to recover its system and restore operations.
“Cancelling a flight is always a last resort, and something we don’t take lightly,” Bastian said.
On Saturday, 2,136 flights from multiple carriers were canceled and more than 21,300 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware.
The problem extends beyond airportswith businesses, government agencies, health and emergency services, banks, schools and universities around the world that are shutting down or seeing their services disrupted due to a faulty software update for Microsoft Windows operating systems released by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, Experts told CNN.
According to Microsoft, the outage affected approximately 8.5 million Windows devices.
George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike apologized to customers and said a fix has been deployed, but experts say Getting the systems back in order will be a long process.
Major airlines said services were being restored but there could be further delays and disruption.
Most of United Airlines' systems have recovered after Friday's outage, although some delays and cancellations are still possible, the airline said. said in a statementMore than 400 United flights were canceled Saturday and more than 200 flights were canceled Sunday, according to FlightAware.com.
Delta has suspended travel by unaccompanied minors through Wednesday due to the outage, the airline said. announcement over the weekend. Unaccompanied children who are already booked on Delta flights will not be able to travel, and the airline has asked that no new flights be booked for them.
American Airlines was also affected, it said in a statement statement As of Friday, “we were able to safely restore operations” and “we issued a travel waiver for our customers impacted by the vendor technology issue earlier this morning,” Allegiant Air said in a statement. statement saturday As “normal operations have resumed” after the outage, they are processing a backlog of customer messages and troubleshooting their programs and platforms.
Even with the Faulty computer update canceledIt's not a silver bullet for airlines, which have computers at thousands of gates that will need to be manually rebooted individually, David Kennedy, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Binary Defense, told CNN on Saturday.
“It’s not as simple as restarting. There are a lot more steps and complexities to consider,” Kennedy said. “There’s just not enough people in these airports, in these locations, to go and do it.”
THE United States Department of Transportation On Friday, the airline said it had determined that the flight delays and cancellations resulting from the system outage were “controllable,” meaning they were “within the airline's control.” In such cases, airlines “must meet their obligations.” customer service commitments.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on social media job On Saturday, he said he received reports that some airlines were only offering flight credits to passengers for cancelled flights.
“Let’s be clear: You have the right to get your money back quickly if your flight is canceled and you don’t rebook,” Buttigieg said.
Flight cancellations continue at airports around the world the busiest Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where officials have implemented a “concessions crisis plan, ensuring concessions are available while all flights are operating.”
“We have provided assistance and guidance to passengers staying overnight at the airport, and we are working with our airlines to create space for baggage collection areas,” an airport spokesperson told CNN on Sunday.
“It feels like nobody cares about us. We’re sleeping on the floor. There are children sleeping on the floor and nobody is doing anything about it,” said traveler Anthony Augugliaro. WSB, CNN affiliate on Sunday.
Long lines of passengers also waited at the airport Saturday. Catalina Villareal, a Delta passenger, described the scene as: “Chaos. Frustration. Hunger.”
Villareal said he has experienced three flight cancellations.
Charlotte Yeh, a traveler at Boston's Logan International Airport, told a CNN affiliate WFXT On Saturday, she received no notification: her flight to Fort Lauderdale for her father's 96th birthday had been canceled.
Thousands of people face the same uncertainty as they crowd into airports across the country, waiting for answers.
“I was supposed to be in California for my mother’s wedding,” Richard Whitfield of Pasco County, Florida, told CNN Saturday. Whitfield and his partner, Jonathan Shade, left Tampa on Thursday and missed their connecting flight in Atlanta due to bad weather, which delayed their landing and forced the plane to refuel in Tallahassee.
After their rescheduled flight for Friday was delayed several times, the couple decided to cancel the trip and return home. But because no return flights were available to Tampa Friday night, they spent their second night at an airport hotel. They were unable to get a Delta voucher for either stay.
“Richard was put on hold for 24 hours,” Shade told CNN. “When he finally got through, it was 2001.”
Two hours later, Richard's spot in Delta Air Lines' virtual customer service queue was 2,300 people deep, Shade said.
Whitfield told CNN the whole ordeal has taken a toll on him.
“For me, it's the domino effect that this has on humanity and everything we need to survive: food, sleep, water, shelter,” he said.
After spending 48 hours in Atlanta, they found a flight to Tampa on Saturday night, and they just hope it won't be delayed or canceled. For now, the couple can't do anything but wait and “have a good drink,” Shade and Whitfield said.
