The fights of thousands of Delta Air Lines travelers have been canceled or delayed due to Monday’s early morning power outage in Atlanta, where the company is headquartered. This outage caused Delta's computer system to crash.
Two of the more than 450 canceled Delta flights were round trips headed for Omaha's Eppley Airfield. One was scheduled to arrive from Minneapolis at 12:37 pm and then take off again at 1:13 pm. The other canceled flight was from Atlanta, which scheduled to land in Omaha at 5:11 pm, and then leave at 5:51 pm.
“The mood today was understanding,” says Steve McCoy of the Omaha Airport Authority. “I think travelers knew the extent of the outage and what it would take to get things back online. And things did come online in a timely manner, and people were able to start departing.”
Eppley has 20 scheduled Delta takeoffs, and 20 Delta landings on Mondays, which is roughly a quarter of the day’s flights.
Like Omaha, the Des Moines International Airport is also experiencing delays, though no cancelations.
“By the reports that I’m seeing from Delta, they had everything up and running by 7:40 am this morning, but then of course the system is backed up. I think we had up to about a four-hour delay here in Des Moines,” says Airport Director Kevin Foley. “When I was checking with Delta, they advised that flights coming in, out of Atlanta for example, may be a four-four delay as well.”
Des Moines has 14 scheduled Delta takeoffs and 14 landings on Mondays, which is about 30 percent of the flights.
Cancelations and delays are expected throughout the country for the rest of day and perhaps tomorrow. Passengers are advised to check online to view the status of their flight.