Impact of CrowdStrike Outage on Delta Airlines

CrowdStrike outage in July 2024 had negatively affected the operations of the airline industry; however, Delta Airlines' heavy reliance on third parties, which is also highlighted as a threat in their SWOT analysis, caused them to struggle to resume their operations (Delta Air Lines INC, 2023). To conduct my research on the financial fallout of Delta due to the outage, I looked at the existing financial reports of Q3 and compared it to Q2. I noticed they did not meet their expectations as their revenue declined by 2% from the previous quarter. The cause of this loss was proved by the graphical data in the articles highlighting approximately 7000 flight cancellations, which led to a $500 million loss (Fox 5 Atlanta, 2024). The main fault in the system was identified within the crew scheduling and tracking systems, which are critical to prepare crew schedules and record their availability based on the ratings and certifications, took a long to restart and connect with the other software (INC, 2024). Since Delta has a diverse fleet of airplanes, it takes time and effort to set up a perfect crew per flight. Additionally, this outage caused a legal battle between the two companies, which were mentioned in the back-to-back Wall Street journal articles and CNN news updates. In conclusion, the prolonged recovery of Delta Airlines compared to its competitors emphasized the urgent need for modernization of the IT system to reduce reliance on third parties. It highlighted the importance of prompt and timely responses to affected customers with transparency to avoid a negative wave on social media.