Delta pilots call out management for lack of IT investment, union offers help

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Delta Air Lines’ pilot union laid the ongoing issues surrounding cancellations at the feet of management on Tuesday, saying the company has not invested enough in its computer systems.

"Well, we believe Delta has failed to properly invest in this technology, and pilots are frustrated too,” said Delta pilot union spokesman Evan Baach. “We definitely share our customers' frustration. We're professionals. We want to get our customers to their destination safely and on time.”

Air travelers systemwide are still feeling the effects of Friday's global computer meltdown. But Delta has been hit especially hard, cancelling 7,000 flights since then.

Company officials say it’s taking a long time to reset its crew scheduling system. That's a major issue considering the carrier employs 16,000 pilots and 28,000 flight attendants.

The cancellations left thousands of passengers, like Cincinnati's Jesse Tack, stranded and looking for new ways home.

Tack has had to use rental cars and unplanned flights to get home from San Diego, finally finding a flight from Los Angeles to Nashville to get close.

Tack met his sister-in-law at a Tennessee Buc-ee's on Monday to complete his journey.

"We had to fly out of Los Angeles. We just started as soon as our flight was cancelled we're in the car - one of us was driving - one of us was on a laptop. And we were just searching for any flights. You couldn't search for Delta flights on the phone because the app wasn't really working,” said Tack, who is the afternoon DJ on B105.

"It's scary. I'm honestly shocked we were able to get to our vacation. We were surrounded in Atlanta by so many people."

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Tuesday announced the department is launching an investigation into Delta, writing "passengers have the right to be treated fairly and I will make sure that right is upheld."

Baach also says all 16,000 of Delta's pilots are standing by to help reset the system.

"We're willing to work on our days off to do that," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport says there are still lingering impacts from Friday's outage as of Tuesday afternoon, And to check with your airline ahead of time.

Delta's chief executive officer Ed Bastian has apologized to passengers and Delta is offering reimbursements for extra expenses through Tuesday.

The company claims one of its integral systems, particularly one that tracks where its crews are, is still not fully functional days after the outage. This has caused their cancellations and delays to compound upon each other and snowball.

But the company isn't saying much other than that publicly and is not commenting yet on the pending federal investigation.

The airline tracking website FlightWise reports there were 662 cancellations through Tuesday afternoon in the United States.

Here are links to Delta’s delay and cancellation policy and its specific terms for the current situation:

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