Delta Airlines cancels more than 350 flights Monday after computer outage

ORLANDO, Fla. — After a power outage crippled Delta Airlines’ computer system and grounded its fleet for most of the morning Monday, the company announced 300 flights were canceled and many more were delayed.

Of the nearly 6,000 Delta flights scheduled Monday, about 800 were able to take off, the company said.

At Orlando International Airport, four flights were canceled and nearly 50 were delayed.

The power outage in Atlanta happened at about 2:30 a.m. and caused Delta to ground its fleet around the world for more than six hours.

Later in the morning, the company announced it would resume “limited departures,” but warned that delays and cancelations would continue throughout the day.

“Large-scale cancelations are expected today,” the company said on its website. “We are aware that flight status systems, including airport screens, are incorrectly showing flights on time.

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"The kids get frustrated and then we have to go back to work tomorrow. So that's going to be a huge, huge issues with that," said passenger Sarahi Robertson.

A power outage at Delta's headquarters in Atlanta forced the company to ground all flights for six hours.

"I just want to get back to Germany on time. I'm really nervous about that," said passenger Taymur Hallal.

Hallal is stationed in Germany. He took a leave from the Army to vacation with his girlfriend, but he has to be signed in by midnight Tuesday.

"It's not like I’m a civilian and can just take as much vacation time as I want. I really have to be back on time," Hallal said. "The flight was only delayed by an hour, and right now it's delayed by about four to five hours. So I'm going to miss my connecting flight in Atlanta, unfortunately."

A Delta flight attendant at OIA Monday said she'd been with the company for 35 years and hadn't seen a situation as bad as Monday's since flights around the country were grounded on Sept. 11, 2001.

Passengers should call the reservations line to check on their flight at 1-800-2221-1212, or check here to learn more about flight refunds.

Delta offered refunds for stranded passengers whose flights were canceled or significantly delayed because of the outage.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian tweeted to passengers, offering a waiver to anyone affected: "I apologize for the challenges this has created for you with your travel experience. The Delta team is working very, very hard to restore and get these systems back as quickly as possible."

Delta will provide $200 in travel vouchers to all customers who experienced a delay of greater than three hours or a cancelled flight as a result of Monday's system wide outage. The vouchers are available for travel on all Delta and Delta Connection-operated flights.

Cox Media Group