Airline expects total costs of at least $500 million
Delta Air Lines Inc. late Thursday detailed the half-billion-dollar price tag it has put on flight cancellations and other problems caused by last month’s CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD) software outage.
Delta (DAL) said in a filing that it will see a “direct” revenue impact of around $380 million in the third quarter due to the incident, mostly related to refunds for cancelled flights and to providing customer compensation in cash and miles. Its fuel expenses were lowered by some $50 million as a result of those canceled flights, Delta said.
Delta had to cancel about 7,000 flights as it ran into problems with reservations and crew scheduling.
The airline chalked up another $170 million in non-fuel costs, mostly related to customer-expense reimbursements and crew-related expenses, it said.
Total costs will reach at least $500 million, the airline said in the filing, confirming earlier estimates by Chief Executive Ed Bastian.