Mass flight cancellations hit U.S. airports for a third day in a row on Sunday, a delayed result after Friday’s technical glitch. Affects Microsoft Windows clients It caused IT infrastructure outages around the world—and disrupted many airline operations.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines again canceled hundreds of flights on Sunday, as both carriers continued to try to recover their operations following problems caused by a third-party vendor late last week.

The problems filled terminals at airports across the country this weekend, with long, snaking lines of travelers waiting to speak with customer service generals — and images of passengers sleeping on airport concourse floors.

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Delta Air Lines’ customer service line on Saturday at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). Joe Radle/Getty Images

By late Sunday morning, airlines had canceled more than 1,000 flights in the US

Delta led the way on Sunday with more than 500 cancellations — about 13% of its operations, according to data from flight-tracking site FlightAware. United was second, with 253 cancellations on Sunday – about 8% of its schedule.

In all, airlines have canceled more than 6,500 flights in the U.S. since Friday’s disruption — including about 3,000 flights on Delta, according to FlightAware data.

Delta Air Lines

In a statement on Saturday, the Atlanta-based carrier said it was in the process of restoring operations following an IT outage at the Austin-based crowdstrike, which caused it – and several other US airlines – to temporarily halt flights on Friday.

Delta extended the pause on short unaccompanied flights until Tuesday (July 23) and extended a travel waiver that gives passengers more flexibility to make itinerary changes — a move taken by other carriers, including United.

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United Airlines

In its most recent update on Saturday, United told TPG that its customer service call systems had been fully restored, and noted that most technology systems were back up and running — but warned of additional cancellations and delays over the weekend.

FlightAware data shows that US flight cancellations on Saturday were 37% lower than Friday — but still topped 1,600 for the day, led by Delta’s 1,200.

Key Delta and United hubs this weekend from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), Denver International Airport (DEN) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) — among others.

Microsoft Corp. on Saturday at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The Windows Recovery screen is displayed. By David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Getty Images

What are you owed to the airlines after a cancellation or delay?

Although these issues are caused by a third-party vendor, not the airlines directly, the US Department of Transportation considers these cancellations and delays “controllable” — in other words, the airline’s responsibility — an agency spokeswoman told TPG on Friday.

It means that the promises made by the airlines spelled out in the airline customer service dashboard will apply. Each of the airlines here has told the DOT that it will guarantee cancellations or significant delays.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took to social media on Saturday to remind them of the agency’s refund policies.

“I’m hearing reports of some airlines only offering flight credit,” Buttigieg wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Let me be clear – if your flight is canceled and you do not rebook you are entitled to your money back immediately.”

Outlier in 2024

The operational disruptions in the past 48 hours come during a year that has been largely without a major air travel meltdown.

Between January 1 and July 18, US carriers canceled 1.3% of flights, per FlightAware. Compare that to a 2.6% cancellation rate during the same period in 2022.

Delta specifically cited its operational reliability during the carrier Second-quarter earnings call on July 11.

CEO Ed Bastin said at the time, “The performance we’ve run this year has been the best in every measure, month in, month out, month in and month out.” The carrier scored highly on both the recent JD Power Airline Rankings and TPG’s 2024 Best Airlines Report, in part due to its operational reliability.

“Unexpected disruptions like this are difficult and do not reflect the operational reliability and experiences that customers have come to know and expect from us,” the carrier said Saturday.

The industry’s most recent large-scale operational problems include last summer’s multi-day snafu at United that prompted the carrier to increase cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration on operations at Newark …and the January 2023 FAA computer outage that prompted the first nationwide Ground stop since September 11, 2001. The latter incident occurred just days after Southwest Airlines’ 2022 holiday operational disaster.

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