Microsoft blasts Delta over CrowdStrike outage comments
Travelers wait to board their delayed flight at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on July 23, 2024, in Atlanta. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
ATLANTA - Microsoft is joining cybersecurity software firm CrowdStrike in fighting back against Delta Air Lines, which blames the companies for causing several thousand canceled flights following a technology outage last month.
A lawyer for Microsoft said Tuesday that Delta’s key IT system is probably serviced by other technology companies, not Microsoft Windows.
"Your letter and Delta’s public comments are incomplete, false, misleading, and damaging to Microsoft and its reputation," Microsoft lawyer Mark Cheffo said in a letter to Delta attorney David Boies.
Cheffo said Microsoft was trying to determine "why other airlines were able to fully restore business operations so much faster than Delta."
The comments represent an escalating fight between the tech companies and the Atlanta-based airline.
Last week, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said that disruption to its operations cost the airline "half a billion dollars in five days."
Part of that amount included "the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels" for the five-day period, Bastian said.
The Atlanta-based airline hired prominent attorney David Boies, chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner, to pursue possible damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft, a source confirmed to FOX Business.
"We’re not looking to wipe them out, but we’re looking to make certain that we get compensated however they decide to for what they cost us," he said during an appearance on CNBC.
CrowdStrike responded to Bastian's comments and Delta's hiring of Boies by calling the threat of a lawsuit "misleading."
On Tuesday, Delta said it has a long record of investing in reliable service including "billions of dollars in IT capital expenditures" since 2016 and billions more in annual IT costs. It declined further comment.
Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft said Delta had turned down their offers to help the airline recover from the outage last month. Microsoft’s lawyer said CEO Satya Nadella emailed Bastian during the outage, but the Delta CEO never replied.
Delta's flight problems after CrowdStrike outage
Among airlines, Delta was by far the hardest hit hard by the outage, having to cancel more than 6,500 flights, because key systems were crippled by the incident.
According to statistics from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Delta scrapped more flights in the last week than it did in 2018 and 2019 combined.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating why Delta failed to recover as quickly as other airlines. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week that the department would also examine Delta’s customer service, including "unacceptable" lines for assistance and reports that unaccompanied minors were stranded at airports.
On July 25, Buttigieg told FOX 5's Tyler Fingert that the agency had received more than 3,000 complaints from Delta passengers.
"When there is a disruption, you need to be able to get a hold of a customer service agent who can help you, someone who can make sure you get the vouchers for meals, hotels, rebooking, that kind of thing, and somebody who can get you on your way," Secretary Buttigieg said. "So, when we hear these reports of somebody having to wait in line for 8 hours to speak to somebody on the phone, people sleeping on the floor in airports because they weren't able to get accommodated or taken care of, that's a major concern and that's going to be a big focus of our investigation."
Six days after the original outage, Delta was able to resume operations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.