Delta Asserts It Has No Choice But to Seek Damages From CrowdStrike

Delta canceled thousands of flights after a CrowdStrike update caused an IT outage. According to Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, the five-day meltdown cost the airline $500 million. Bastian said, “They haven’t offered us anything. Free consulting advice to help us.”

In an interview, Bastian said the loss was “not just the lost revenue, but the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels.”

As to whether or not Delta is going to sue CrowdStrike for what happened, Bastian responded,  “We have no choice.” He added, “We’re not looking to wipe them [CrowdStrike] out, but we’re looking to make certain we get compensated — however they decide to — for what they cost us.” Bastian also mentioned, “We have to protect our shareholders, we have to protect our customers, our employees, for the damage, not just to the cost of it, but to the brand, the reputational damage.”

Delta Struggled The Most During the IT Outage

Delta canceled more flights between Friday and Tuesday during the IT outage than it did in 2018 and 2019 combined. According to the airline, it canceled 5,470 flights in just five days. In contrast, the airline canceled a total of 5,370 flights in both 2018 and 2019. 

Of all the US airlines, Delta had the hardest time to recover. Because of the CrowdStrike update, the airline had to manually reboot up to 40,000 systems. “You can’t come into a mission-critical 24/7 operation and tell us we have a bug — it doesn’t work,” Bastian said. 

Because of the IT outage, Delta had a difficult time tracking their pilots and flight attendants. While Delta hasn’t filed a case against CrowdStrike, Delta reportedly hired high-profile law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. CrowdStrike spokesperson said that  “We are aware of the reporting, but have no knowledge of a lawsuit and have no further comment.”