2024-08-08 DELTA AIR LINES, INC. Cybersecurity Incident

Page last updated on September 11, 2024

DELTA AIR LINES, INC. initially disclosed a cybersecurity incident in an SEC 8-K filing on 2024-08-08 15:00:37 EDT.

Company Summary

Delta Air Lines is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the United States’ oldest operating airline and the seventh-oldest operating worldwide. (Source: Wikipedia)

Incident Details

Material: Unknown
Is Breach: FALSE
Records Compromised: Unknown
Data Types Impacted: No Data Types Tracked (yet)

Compromised Date:
Detected Date: 2024-07-19
Disclosure Date: 2024-08-08
Contained Date:
Recovered Date:

Attack Goal: Unknown

Costs: $500M

• Aggregated costs (Indirect): $500M - For the September quarter, the direct revenue impact of the incident is estimated to be $380 million, primarily driven by refunding customers for cancelled flights and providing customer compensation in the form of cash and SkyMiles. Non-fuel expense associated with the technology-driven outage and subsequent operational recovery is estimated at $170 million, primarily due to customer expense reimbursements and crew-related costs. Fuel expense is estimated to be $50 million lower as a result of the 7,000 flight cancellations, which impacted projected year-over-year September quarter 2024 capacity growth by approximately 1.5 points.

Filings

8-K filed on 2024-08-08

DELTA AIR LINES, INC. filed an 8-K at 2024-08-08 15:00:37 EDT
Accession Number: 0001683168-24-005369

Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure.

As Delta Air Lines, Inc. (“Delta”) has previously communicated, Delta experienced operational disruption resulting from the CrowdStrike-caused outage on July 19, 2024. The outage disrupted Delta’s operations, causing approximately 7,000 flight cancellations over five days.

“An operational disruption of this length and magnitude is unacceptable, and our customers and employees deserve better. Since the incident, our people have returned the operation to an industry-leading position that is consistent with the level of performance our customers expect from Delta,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s Chief Executive Officer.

“We are pursuing legal claims against CrowdStrike and Microsoft to recover damages caused by the outage, which total at least $500 million.”

For the September quarter, the direct revenue impact of the incident is estimated to be $380 million, primarily driven by refunding customers for cancelled flights and providing customer compensation in the form of cash and SkyMiles. Non-fuel expense associated with the technology-driven outage and subsequent operational recovery is estimated at $170 million, primarily due to customer expense reimbursements and crew-related costs. Fuel expense is estimated to be $50 million lower as a result of the 7,000 flight cancellations, which impacted projected year-over-year September quarter 2024 capacity growth by approximately 1.5 points.

Company Information