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Delta Air Lines has officially put a price tag on the damage done to it by the CrowdStrike global technology outage. CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC that the disruption had cost the airline $500 million, and he says Delta will be suing to recoup some of that money.
“We have no choice, between not just the lost revenue, but the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels,” he said. “We did everything we could to take care of our customers over that period.”
The outage was caused by a faulty software update. And although many other airlines had to deal with cancellations and delays because of the outage, Delta’s problems were especially bad. It was still cancelling hundreds of flights a day after other carriers’ service was getting back to normal.
Last week, Citigroup had slashed its third-quarter forecast for the airline with that same half-a-billion-dollar figure in mind. Plus, the company is dealing with an inquiry from the Department of Transportation and criticism from its flight attendants over how it handled the incident. CNBC reported earlier this week that the airline had hired Boies Schiller Flexner chairman David Boies to pursue legal action. CrowdStrike has not acknowledged any lawsuits filed against it.
“We’re not looking to wipe them out, but we’re looking to get compensated for what they cost us,” Bastian told CNBC.