"You gotta take it as it comes:" Delta delays, cancellations impact travelers at Mitchell Airport
MILWAUKEE -- Monday, August 8th was a day of cancellations and delays for Delta Airlines -- the third largest American airline as all flights were temporarily grounded across the globe. Airline officials said an overnight power outage at a facility near its headquarters in Atlanta led to a computer meltdown. Hundreds of flights were canceled, and others were delayed for hours.
The delays and cancellations affected travelers here in Milwaukee. As of 5:00 p.m., there were a couple of cancellations on the flight boards at General Mitchell International Airport, and delays ranging from mere minutes to several hours.
Delta delays/cancellations at Mitchell Airport
The good news? As of Monday evening, the duration of those delays was dwindling.
"You gotta take it as it comes," Robert Farnsworth said.
Delta planes were neither coming nor going at Mitchell Airport Monday morning.
"I've already checked in. I've already got my boarding passes -- but they're saying we're not actually going anywhere," Steve Mueller said.
In a statement, Delta's CEO said the company lost power around 2:30 a.m. Monday -- which led Delta officials to implement a system-wide shutdown.
"Normally you'll get a notification on your phone that the flights are delayed. There's no notification because there's a system-wide outage, so they can't even notify you," Bryan Koutsky said.
Koutsky said he's flown more than a million miles with Delta, but said even with his status as a Delta Diamond flier, he was in the rough Monday.
"You have this special hotline to call, and they're saying it's between an hour, and an hour and 20 minutes to call you back. Normally someone picks-up the phone right away," Koutsky said.
"I don't want to switch if I still have a flight going out. I don't mind a delay -- just tell me its a delay. I got a little brother to get," Mueller said.
Delta is based in Atlanta, and the company's energy supplier, Georgia Power, released a statement indicating a Delta equipment failure is what caused the outage.
