Delta CEO: We're focused on regaining your trust

Over the past five years, Delta Air Lines has invested billions of dollars to build the most reliable operation among the major U.S. carriers, and we have invested in our people who provide great service to our customers.

That’s why it was disheartening when a power outage, caused by an equipment failure at our data center, resulted in our systems going down globally for a short time last week — something unprecedented in Delta’s history.

To put it in perspective, we canceled three times more flights on the day of the outage than we have the entire year to date.

We know we can never repay our customers for everything the inconvenience meant, but we are working hard to take care of their needs and ensure they are well informed that we are offering:

• An opportunity for a full refund.
• Fee waivers for anyone who changed travel dates.
• Hotel room vouchers for customers who needed them.
• Travel vouchers worth $200 — the average price of a one-way ticket on Delta for that day — to customers who experienced cancellations or delays of more than three hours.

We also took advantage of some unique assets to help, including deploying private jets from our Delta Private Jets subsidiary to carry passengers to their destinations. And our employees across the system worked tirelessly to take care of our customers and restore our operation.

This event will not define us — our focus now is ensuring it never happens again. Delta has spent more than $150 million to upgrade our IT infrastructure over the past two years, and that investment will continue. Earlier this year we hired a new chief information officer, and changed leadership over technology infrastructure to oversee these efforts and bring world-class technology leadership to Delta.

At Delta, our motto is “Keep Climbing.” That means we are focused on regaining the trust and loyalty of our customers, and we hope to demonstrate in the months and years to come that they can count on us for unparalleled reliability and great customer service.

Ed Bastian is CEO of Delta Air Lines.