Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian is estimating that his airline will face $500 million in costs related to last month’s global tech outage that sent Delta into a tailspin.
Bastian shared his thoughts on Wednesday while speaking with CNBC, sharing that the $500 million represents lost revenue and “the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels” during the five days that the airline was struggling.
Hospitals, TV broadcasts, banks, retailers, and, of course, airlines were all left floundering two weeks ago when the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike issued an update with a flawed file that resulted in millions of Windows machines crashing.
The tech outage, being dubbed by many the largest ever, set off a chain of events that left Delta canceling and delaying flights and stranding fliers as it worked to right the ship.
While all airlines struggled, Delta was the hardest hit by the outage as its key systems were left crippled after the shutdown.
A federal investigation has been launched into why Delta wasn’t able to recover like its peers. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week that the U.S. Department of Transportation would also look into its customer service, saying the lines for assistance and reports of unaccompanied minors left stranded were “unacceptable.”