Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced in an X post on Tuesday that his agency has opened an investigation into Delta Air Lines as flights continue to be disrupted following the CrowdStrike outage last Friday.
“[The DOT] has opened an investigation into Delta Air Lines to ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions,” Buttigieg wrote in the post.
“All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld,” he added.
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Of the 669 flights out of the U.S. cancelled in the 24-hour period ending at 11:20 a.m. EST on Tuesday, 450 of them were Delta flights and of the 2,501 delayed flights out of the U.S., 636 were Delta, according to FlightAware.com.
“While you should first try to resolve issues directly with the airline, we want to hear from passengers who believe that Delta has not complied with USDOT-enforced passenger protection requirements during the recent travel disruptions,” Buttigieg wrote in a follow-up post.
Delta cancelled 3,500 flights between the outage and Saturday, according to a statement put out Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Monday.
“Canceling a flight is always a last resort, and something we don’t take lightly,” Bastian wrote in the statement.
Delta has issued a fee waiver, which states that “the fare difference for customers will be waived when rebooked travel occurs on or before July 28.”
Bastian spoke with Buttigieg on Sunday, telling Reuters in a statement that Buttigieg wanted “to remind me of our commitments to our customers, which I said, ‘you do not need to remind me, I know, because we do our very best, particularly in tough times taking care of our customers.’”
Travelers have reported mishaps on X about flying with Delta, including their luggage being lost by the airline, suitcases piling up in the airport, having to sleep in the airport for days on end and unresponsive Delta employees.
Buttigieg linked the Air Travel Service Complaint or Comment Form in a post on X urging travelers to report issues with Delta there.
