The outage last week caused information technology problems worldwide and canceled thousands of flights, but Delta was hit much harder than other U.S. airlines. Delta was forced to cancel more than 5,000 flights during the five-day span, which was more than the airline canceled in all of 2019.
The outage was caused by a failed software update from CrowdStrike that crashed operations for millions of Microsoft Windows users. Bastian said the company has “no choice” but to seek damages. Bastian said the $500 million figure includes not just lost revenue but “the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels” that were lost over a period of five days. He explained that Delta was hit so hard because they rely on Microsoft and CrowdStrike more for operations compared to other airlines.