New York, Jul 23 (EFE).- The United States government, through the Department of Transportation (DOT), opened an investigation on Tuesday into the airline Delta due to the “continued widespread disruptions” in its service, which began after the global computer failure of the software firm Crowdstrike in the Windows operating system last Friday.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the investigation on his Twitter account “to ensure the airline follows the law and cares for its passengers,” adding that he wants to “make sure that right is upheld.”
Today alone, Delta cancelled 451 flights, according to the Flight Radar website, a figure that far exceeds that of other airlines and which adds to the cancellations on Saturday (1,208), Sunday (1,386) and Monday (1,159). In total, more than 4,000 flights have been cancelled in four days.
Buttigieg encouraged affected passengers to direct their complaints to the company itself, but added in his message: “We want to hear from passengers who believe Delta has not met DOT passenger protection requirements,” and warned: “We will follow up.”
Delta has not yet responded to the Secretary of State’s announcement, but on Monday afternoon it issued a statement attributing the delays and cancellations to having to resort to manual repairs to the affected applications and synchronizing them in an “enormously complicated” system.
“Delta’s teams are working tirelessly to take care of our customers,” the statement added, detailing the various alternatives they were offering: expense reimbursement, flight rescheduling and offering miles as compensation, among others.
Delta is one of the big four US airlines, along with American, United and Southwest, but none of the others have suffered the disruptions Delta has suffered in recent days. EFE
