Consultant’s Insight: Delta Air Lines’ IT woes

A bandage appears to have been ripped off with CrowdStrike ’s exposure of a potential problem for Delta Air Lines : Outdated technology systems. [caption id="attachment_69752" align="alignright" width="261"] Cathy Roberson, Cargo Facts Consulting senior consultant and Air Cargo Next columnist[/caption] Last month, a software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike caused airline delays and disruptions across multiple industries. The faulty update cost Fortune 500 companies about $5.4 billion in damages, according to insurance company Parametrix . While many airlines and other businesses were able to recove r after several hours, Delta took longer, canceling more than 5,000 flights in one week. The carrier’s platforms, which match flight crews to planes, didn’t work properly, leading to further disruptions after the outage . As a result, the U.S. Department of Transportation 's Office of Aviation Consumer Protection announced it would investigate Delta Air Lines . The DOT cited widespread flight disruptions and customer service failures in which Delta did not uphold commitments to its customers. In turn, Delta Air Lines announced it would seek damages from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft . The outage cost the airline $500 million, according to Delta. Outdated versus updated IT Boies Schiller Flexner , a law firm that represents Microsoft, said in a letter this week to Delta Air Lines that, after a preliminary review of why other airlines recovered faster, Delta's key IT system is probably serviced by other technology companies, not Microsoft Windows. The letter suggests that "Delta, unlike its competitors, apparently has not modernized its IT infrastructure either for the benefit of its customers or for its pilots and flight attendants." In a statement shared with several media outlets, Delta Air Lines stated: "Since 2016, Delta has invested billions of dollars in IT capital expenditures, in addition to the billions spent annually in IT operating costs." However, this wasn't the first disruption caused by Delta's lagging IT systems. In January 2017, Delta experienced a nationwide ground stop due to a "systems outage." The issue caused departure delays and at least 150 cancellations. Later, in September 2018, Delta's computer tracking systems experienced issues, forcing Delta to temporarily halt all departing domestic flights. As a result, the FAA issued a ground stop due to a computer outage affecting passenger check-in and other aircraft prep issues. Delta's recent IT investments Delta Air Lines announced a multiyear agreement with IBM in 2021. As part of the agreement, IBM was contracted to provide technology and industry expertise "to modernize and migrate Delta's applications to the public cloud," according to a 2021 announcement. IBM promised to "transform Delta's computing environment to run on a hybrid cloud architecture built on Red Hat ’s OpenShift, enabling a consistent, standards-based approach to development, security and operations across clouds." The announcement noted that Delta and IBM had a long-standing relationship. A year after the IBM announcement, Delta pivoted to select Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the airline's preferred cloud provider. "AWS will help Delta unlock technologies and streamline processes that will make the end-to-end customer experience faster, smoother and more secure," a 2022 release stated. Current troubles Who’s to blame? There are a lot of fingers pointing. How successful was Delta Air Lines’ cloud migration? According to a 2022 Forbes article, one-third of cloud migrations fail outright and only one in four organizations meet their migration deadlines. Is Microsoft correct in describing Delta Air Lines’ IT systems as “lacking in modernization” or is Microsoft just sour because it lost to IBM? Or is it something else? Regardless, investigations are underway by Delta Air Lines, Microsoft and the FAA. Meanwhile, Delta must regain its credibility with customers quickly. Negative press and a history of IT failures will result in loss of business and, in a highly competitive market, other airlines will take advantage of the situation.

Consultant’s Insight: Delta Air Lines’ IT woes

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