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Although a technology outage led to extensive delays and disruptions in July, Delta Air Lines (DAL-5.97%) says that its profits will be arriving right on time. The company told investors in a securities filing Thursday that it is affirming its earnings expectations for the year despite its CrowdStrike (CRWD-6.72%) havoc this summer.
“Full-year 2024 earnings per share is expected to be at or above the mid point guidance of $6 to $7, excluding 45-cent impact from the IT outage on September quarter earnings per share,” Delta said in its filing.
Translation: We can take a $500 million hit and keep going about our business. That’s the amount that the carrier says it had to spend dealing with the days-long chaos when its systems got scrambled following a cybersecurity update.
“We have no choice, between not just the lost revenue, but the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels,” CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC last month. “We did everything we could to take care of our customers over that period.”
It’s also how much Delta is seeking in damages from CrowdStrike, the company that pushed the update, though the two companies have been publicly arguing about whether Delta was receptive enough to CrowdStrike’s offers to help fix the problem. Delta took much longer than many of its competitors to get its operations fully up to speed.
“CrowdStrike reiterates its apology to Delta, its employees, and its customers, and is empathetic to the circumstances they faced,” the cybersecurity firm told the airline in a legal letter. “However, CrowdStrike is highly disappointed by Delta’s suggestion that CrowdStrike acted inappropriately and strongly rejects any allegation that it was grossly negligent or committed willful misconduct with respect to the Channel File 291 incident.”