The Dept. of Transportation is investigating Delta’s flight delays and cancelations

The Dallas-based airline, Southwest Airlines, and CrowdStrike, are having a hard time restoring IT systems after a tech glitch

Southwest Airlines had technical issues in the holiday travel season in 2022. The Dallas-based airline canceled thousands of flights and left millions of travelers stranded.

The software that tracks flight crews is something Delta Air Lines has been working on in order to get it back. However, he noted that it may take a few days to fully restore the airline’s operations.

In a public letter Sunday, Delta offered travel waivers to customers on flights impacted by the outage, allowing them to change itineraries and rebook their flights without any added fees. Under new federal regulations customers are not obligated to take the travel credit offered to rebook flights, but are entitled to a cash Refunds, according to a post by Buttigieg.

In a post on X, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out the airline on Sunday for its continuous disruptions and “unacceptable customer service.”

Buttigieg added that under new federal regulations, customers are not obligated to accept the travel credit offered to rebook flights but, instead, are entitled to a prompt cash refund.

In a statement Tuesday, Pete Buttigieg said that Delta must care for their passengers and honor their customer service commitments.

The DOT said that Southwest had been ordered to pay a hefty $150 million civil penalty, making it the biggest DOT fine for consumers.

Delta acknowledged in a statement that the Department of Transportation has a notice of an investigation, and that it is fully cooperating with the department.

“This is not just the right thing to do, it’s the law, and our department will leverage the full extent of our investigative and enforcement power to ensure the rights of Delta’s passengers are upheld,” he added.

The airline said in a statement that they are focused on restoring operations, after CrowdStrike’s Windows update rendered IT systems around the globe unrepaired.

Millions of Microsoft users worldwide were knocked offline following a flawed software update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity group. The CrowdStrike company said the problem was not a cyberattack but a software glitch. The company withdrew theatic channel file that was affecting customers’ systems after identifying the issue.