Airline flight delays around the world Monday due to a computer systems failure at Delta Air Lines is a scary reminder of how vulnerable we all are to such incidents.
And it also emphasizes the necessity of having adequate backup systems and plans to cover the pitfalls of inevitable computer failures. This is good advice for any business, but it is imperative to services on which vast segments of the public depend.
Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded or delayed when Delta flights were grounded due to its computer systems failure Monday. Delta blamed a power outage in Atlanta that it said impacted the airline’s computer systems and operations worldwide. However, Georgia Power disagreed with that assessment, saying a failure of Delta equipment caused the airline’s power disruption. Whatever the cause, the outage virtually paralyzed Delta’s operations.
The Delta shutdown came less than three weeks after Southwest Airlines blamed a router failure for starting a cascading technology glitch that knocked reservations systems offline and took several days to fully resolve.
Last year, malfunctions in United Airlines’ computer systems grounded hundreds of flights. American Airlines experienced delays after a bug in its software meant that pilots did not have accurate airport maps.
Nothing is fail-safe. But it appears the airline industry needs to do a better job of putting in place more redundancy and backup in case of major glitches such as this week’s in Atlanta. Ironically, Delta claims to have the fewest flight cancellations in the industry, a record that now may take a hit.
