US investigating Delta with an ‘eye toward accountability,’ Pete Buttigieg says

The federal government is gathering data from Delta Air Lines and passengers in wake of the global IT failure that brought airlines, banks, emergency services, and businesses to a halt last week, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Everybody saw the CrowdStrike problem on Friday affecting every part of the economy around the world, and that’s certainly rippled across the airline sector,” he said on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast Wednesday.”

Buttigieg’s comments come on the heels of an investigation launched into Delta Air Lines as it struggles to get operations back on track. The airline has canceled or delayed over 6,000 flights since the problem began, he told FOX Business host Neil Cavuto.

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“Every other airline got back on its feet within a day or two. Delta actually seemed to move in the opposite direction,” he said, adding that “special attention” would also be paid towards customer service to understand what happened.

“We’ve seen reports of people waiting eight hours to get on the phone,” he said. “Talked to people who have waited in lines of more than 100 people being served by just a single agent at an airport, even using the chat function online, not getting a response at anything close to a respectable amount of time.”

“We need to understand how that happened, and we are investigating with an eye toward accountability over that breakdown as we have done in other cases,” he added.

In an updated note to customers on Wednesday, Delta CEO Ed Bastian announced that operations would operate “at a traditional level of reliability” Thursday.

Bastian said disruptions were already down by 50% on Tuesday compared to the prior day and that cancelations on Wednesday will be “minimal.”

Cavuto hearkened back to prior “horror shows” from Southwest and Spirit Airlines, but remarked how Delta has shown “high marks” when it comes to customer service and efficiency. 

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The secretary explained how the cause of issues “differ from airline to airline” but noticed a pattern when it came to recovering. 

“You mentioned that Southwest meltdown,” he said. “That had a lot to do with their particular systems. It was a common kind of similar pattern though… where you had this big epic winter storm, every airline got knocked back, but the rest of them quickly got on their feet, except for one.”

Buttigieg explained how to address that pattern, saying that there needs to be “more resiliency” in how the airlines are set up, allowing for a “kind of cushion” and “capacity” for recovery. 

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He also indicated the role of the Department of Transportation when it comes to these matters and investigations. 

“What we do is we hold airlines accountable for results. We set a floor, we set a standard. We say whether it’s, you know, a customer is being able to reach you or how you treat people when there’s a delay or cancelation, you’ve got to meet the standard, and then you do what the industry does best which is figure out how clearly they have not successfully done that. 

Buttigieg said he has not yet spoken to President Biden about the Delta issue specifically, but expects it will be on his mind the next time he sees him.

Despite seeing “robust” demand for airlines, he said, “we may see some settling.”