Delta flights resume after nationwide system outage

A system outage at Delta Air Lines left passengers grounded around the country for several hours Sunday evening. The airline halted all takeoffs during the outage. By midnight, the Atlanta-based airline said its computer systems were back up and running at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and flights were once again departing.

The airline said later that at least 150 flights were canceled because of the outage. In a statement posted on the Delta website, the airline’s CEO Ed Bastian said the situation was “frustrating” and “not acceptable to the Delta family who prides itself on reliability and customer service.”

This travel disruption comes just a few months after a major computer outage at Delta that resulted from a power outage at the airline’s operations center. That August outage led to more than 2,000 flight cancelations over three days.

A number of people could be seen waiting in planes on the tarmac, and standing around the terminal. By 11:45 p.m. ET, Delta issued this statement:

Delta flights are departing and a ground stop has been lifted as the airline’s IT systems begin to return to normal after a systems outage Sunday night resulted in departure delays and cancellations.

“I want to apologize to all of our customers who have been impacted by this frustrating situation,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. “This type of disruption is not acceptable to the Delta family who prides itself on reliability and customer service. I also want to thank our employees who are working tirelessly to accommodate our customers.”

Approximately 150 flights have been cancelled tonight with more expected. Not all delays and cancellations are being reflected on Delta systems, including delta.com, the Fly Delta App, airport information screens or through our Reservations agents. Some customers are experiencing delays upon landing, particularly at Delta’s hub airports.

A waiver has been issued for travel scheduled on Jan. 29 and 30, for rebooking by Feb. 3. Unaccompanied minors will not be accepted for flights through noon ET, Monday, January 30.

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