Delta's travel system claws its way back to normal

For the third consecutive day, flight cancellations and delays plagued Delta Air Lines Wednesday even as it clawed its way back to normal from a system shutdown.

Nearly 320 flights, including several dozen at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, were canceled by midafternoon before the rate of cancellations slowed to a trickle. This followed 680 canceled flights on Tuesday and more than 800 canceled flights on Monday, when a power loss crashed Delta's computers at its Atlanta operations center.

While airline officials expected normal operations to resume by the end of day Wednesday, the ripple effect could last for days as a delayed passengers try to reach their destinations.

"I would suspect they should have everything set up for normal operations by [Thursday] morning," said Robert Mann, an industry analyst and former airline executive, but, "it could be days from now before some individuals get to where they want to go."

The problem began shortly after 1 a.m. Monday at Delta's Atlanta headquarters when a power surge shorted the energy supply and several key data streams failed to transfer to the company's backup system. While the power loss was brief, the various systems needed to fluidly operate the airline's global network have struggled to return to full speed or functionality, wrote Gil West, Delta's chief operating officer, in a blog post.

While the passenger scene at MSP may have been calm during the beginning of the crisis Monday, by Wednesday patience began to wear thin as customer service lines backed up. Every Delta ticketing line at MSP, the airline's second-largest U.S. hub by traffic, had between 100 to 150 passengers waiting during the morning rush. On Tuesday night, about 1,000 people spent the night in the major airport.

Adding to the problem for customers, Mann said, is what he calls "a breakdown of the interline system" over the last year. The interline system is a voluntary agreement between airlines where both agree to help rebook passengers if the other one has a major disturbance to its operations.

"It used to be the case that there was mutual aid when one airline had a problem," Mann said. "We've seen that system breakdown, and now it's kind of every man for himself."

Delta was busy trying to rebook passengers on other flights, but customers under a time crunch and willing to do some legwork flocked to other airline counters in search of a last-minute ticket.

The Atlanta-based carrier extended its travel waiver through Thursday and offered stranded passengers refunds and $200 in travel vouchers for those whose flights were canceled or delayed three hours or more.

"It's a major black eye for a company that had really been doing a spectacular job on reliability," Mann said.

Star Tribune staff writer Mike Russo contributed to this report.

Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767