The CrowdStrike incident cost Delta Air Lines $500 million

Think about being the CEO of Delta Air Lines, steering your company through the sky, and unexpectedly; a storm comes—not a real one, but a technological tempest that stops thousands of flights from taking off and leaves many people stuck.

It’s not just in movies; it was an actual situation Ed Bastian, Delta’s CEO, experienced this month. A significant information technology (IT) failure happened because of a problem with CrowdStrike’s program change; according to the latest reports, this cost Delta Air Lines $500 million. A massive IT outage caused by this glitch in the CrowdStrike update affected both operations and Delta Airlines’ budget, as it spent a whopping $500 million due to these technical issues.

Delta’s difficult situation started from a wrong update, which impacted numerous Microsoft systems worldwide and triggered a series of disturbances like falling dominos. The company had to cancel more than 5,000 flights, which is higher than the total number of cancellations in one year in 2019.

They were forced to reset 40,000 servers by hand, showing how massive the problem was and emphasizing its magnitude. Financial damage was not limited to lost earnings; it also encompassed spending millions of dollars daily to pay passengers and give them places to stay.

The effect of the outage was not only practical but also related to reputation. Delta, famous for its dependability and service, encountered an unexpected situation where it had to handle a disruption similar to what Southwest Airlines faced in the 2022 holiday season. The U.S. Department of Transportation formally investigated this matter, showing how severe things became.

Regarding the crisis, Bastian has expressed that Delta will look for damages. He stressed the significance of testing technology carefully, mainly when it is crucial for the airline’s functioning. Crowdstrike has not offered any money to Delta, but they give free consulting advice after an incident. We have yet to observe Microsoft’s response; however, Delta is taking this situation very seriously and has hired famous lawyer David Boies as its representative in the quest for compensation.