By Mike Malik, Chief Marketing Officer at Cirium
Technology disruptions are always a challenge, but when they hit during the peak summer travel season, like Delta experienced, the stakes are even higher. This past summer, on July 19th, Delta’s operations were upended by a worldwide malfunction of computers running Microsoft Windows, caused by a flawed software update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Airlines from around the world were affected, but none more so than Delta, a big user of both Windows and CrowdStrike software.
The Atlanta-based airline had to cancel nearly 7,000 flights over five days, costing it an estimated $500 million. That included roughly $380 million in lost revenue, plus $120 million in additional costs. At the same time, Delta suffered damage to its reputation as an airline renowned for operational reliability. Just last year, it was the recipient of Cirium’s prestigious Platinum Award, given to carriers that excel in on-time performance while navigating considerable operational complexities. Delta won the award in 2021 and 2022 as well. As Cirium CEO Jeremy Bowen said at the award ceremony, “Delta’s achievement sets a high standard for operational performance in the airline industry, and it is an inspiration for others.”
How Badly Did the CrowdStrike Disruption Impact Delta’s Relative Operational Performance?
During June, the month before the CrowdStrike incident, Delta recorded an on-time performance rate of 80.05%. This was best among all airlines in North America, based on data from the Cirium On-Time Performance Program. It was eighth best among all airlines worldwide. For comparison, United’s on-time rate in June was 77%, American’s 74%, and Southwest’s 72%. Delta’s completion factor, which measures the percentage of flights operated rather than cancelled, topped 99%.
What about July? Unsurprisingly given all the CrowdStrike-related cancellations, Delta’s monthly completion factor dipped below 95%, the lowest rate among U.S. airlines. But for flights that did operate, punctuality remained solid. Delta’s July on-time rate was 72.36%, a decline from its normal rate but still third best across all of North America. Only Alaska Airlines and United posted a better July rate. Cirium’s monthly on-time performance reports provide an even more detailed look at the numbers. Delta, for example, operated 74% of its July flights within their scheduled block times (this was 77% in June). Its planes during the month departed on-time rate of 72.36% (80.5% in June). They arrived on time at a rate of 72.85% (79.88% in June).
What about August and September?
Delta’s operational performance quickly bounced back after the difficult month of July. Cirium’s August report on industry on-time performance showed the Atlanta airline once again atop the North American charts, registering an on-time arrival rate of 80.9%. Its completion factor rebounded to 98.2%. In September too, it was number one in North America, lifting its punctuality to 87.81%. This was good enough to rank Delta number four on Cirium’s global ranking for September.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley event on September 12th, Delta’s chief financial officer Dan Janki told investors, “The operations continue to run very well. Delta remains the industry leader. If you look across all on-time performance metrics, we lead all carriers in that position. On completion factor, we’re number one related to network carriers. And that’s even with a tough five days that we had [from] the tech outage in July… the Delta team managed to return us to an industry-leading position.” CEO Ed Bastian gave the same message during the carrier’s third quarter earnings call on Oct. 10th. “Year-to-date, our on-time performance is best in the industry, and our completion factor leads the network carriers even when including the impact of the outage.”
AC – Air Canada, AS – Alaska, AA – American Airlines, F9 – Frontier Airlines, B6 – JetBlue, WN Southwest, NK – Spirit Airways, UA – United, WS – Westjet
Where does Delta go from here?
Janki said the airline is reviewing how it handled the CrowdStrike disruption. “There’s definitely a set of learnings related to all elements: people, process, policy.” The airline will continue, he added, to invest heavily in new operations technology. Looking ahead, Cirium’s Diio network planning system shows that Delta is planning to operate more than 430,000 flights in the fourth quarter of 2024, with more than 60 million seats. Both figures represent a roughly 5% increase from last year’s fourth quarter. Running an airline with that much capacity and complexity is no easy task!
What’s Delta’s Secret?
How exactly did Delta win Cirium’s Platinum Award three years in a row? How did it bounce back from July’s IT disruption to once again lead North America in on-time arrivals during August and September? One answer is close cooperation with its most important hub airports. Cirium, in addition to its monthly on-time performance reports for airlines, publishes monthly reports for airports too.
Atlanta, Delta’s busiest hub, which is also the world’s busiest airport, ranked 16th in the world among global airports during both August and September.
Other important Delta airports like Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), Detroit (DTW), Los Angeles International (LAX) and Salt Lake City ranked high on Cirium’s latest rankings as well.
Ever since merging with Northwest in 2008, Delta has strived to improve its operational reliability. Many of its efforts are described in the 2016 book Glory Lost and Found, How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era, by Seth Kaplan and Jay Shabat. The airline has since continued to adopt new technology and is now exploring new applications that use artificial intelligence. Delta speaks often about leveraging data and empowering employees. It owns Delta Tech Ops, which calls itself the largest airline maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) provider in North America. This is particularly helpful with so many current challenges in the aviation supply chain, including parts and engine shortages.
The in-house maintenance expertise also helps Delta deliver strong reliability on older planes, even as it introduces many new planes.
According to Fleets Analyzer, Cirium’s leading analytics database of worldwide aircraft data, Delta has more than 300 new Airbus and Boeing planes on order, including A350s, A330s, A321s, B737 Max 10s, and A220s.
More Platinum Awards on the Horizon?
Managing a global airline with a diverse fleet is no small task, yet Delta continues to set the standard for reliability, as highlighted in Cirium’s monthly on-time reports. While the CrowdStrike issue in July posed a challenge, Delta quickly regained its stride, delivering strong operational performances in August and in September. As the year unfolds, the question remains: how high can Delta climb? Stay tuned to our monthly reports to track their continued success.
Learn more about Cirium On-Time Performance. View all the Monthly On-Time Performance Airlines reports.
