Following a worse-than-expected mix of winter weather at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that prompted all five runways to be closed for more than two hours on Friday morning, Delta teams are working to recover the airline heading into Saturday.

Delta canceled approximately 1,100 flights across our network for Friday, Jan. 10 as several bands of sleet and freezing rain throughout the day and early into the evening also prompted diversions and a temporary pause in aircraft deicing, further challenging our recovery.

Delta expects to recover the airline Saturday as weather conditions improve. We expect some limited cancelations, primarily in the morning, as a result of flight crews and aircraft being out of their normal rotations due to the storm.

Despite the inclement conditions, Delta’s airport teams continue to thoroughly deice aircraft and safely resume flights, as conditions allow Friday night. Throughout the day, airport officials have worked to clear the runways and taxiways of accumulating snow, ice and sleet. Similar recovery efforts are happening at other airports throughout the Southeast as well.

The safety of Delta customers and employees is our primary focus as we manage disruptions to our operation.

Customer care

Delta will waive bag fees for up to three checked bags for customers traveling on Delta-operated flights Jan. 10 through 11:59 p.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 11. (This excludes flights departing from AMS, which are ground-handled by our partner, KLM.) Customers who have already paid for a bag between Friday, Jan. 10 and Saturday, Jan. 11 will be issued a refund of these bag fees in the coming days.

Delta has issued a travel waiver for certain cities across the Southeastern U.S., offering customers with existing bookings additional flexibility to change or cancel their flights ahead of the storm. As always, if a flight is canceled or a delay causes a misconnect, Delta will work to rebook customers on the next available itinerary.  

• Delta encourages customers to watch their flight status closely on delta.com or the Fly Delta app. 
• Delta’s Operations and Customer Center (OCC) works to give customers as much notice as possible about changes to their flights. 
• Customers can also have updates sent directly to their mobile device or by email. 

Operations

Inside Delta’s nerve center: How an OCC Duty Director and the team prepare for winter

Delta's Operations & Customer Center is gearing up for winter, and we talked to Pete Sansom, one of six OCC Duty Directors, about how the team ensures the airline is prepared to run a smooth operation this season.

Flight disruption rebooking and refund eligibility 

Customers have options if their flight is significantly delayed or canceled for any reason. Customers experiencing a significantly delayed or canceled flight can also review flight options and rebook their itinerary on the Fly Delta app or My Trips on delta.com. In addition, customers traveling on a U.S. domestic itinerary who experience a flight delay of three hours or more and choose not to fly—either on the original delayed flight or on a rebooked itinerary—are entitled to receive a full refund for the unflown portion of their ticket (including any ancillary fees paid or checked baggage charges). The same refund eligibility applies if a customer experiences a flight delay of six hours or more on an international itineraryand chooses not to fly.

If a flight is cancelled and the customer chooses not to fly on their rebooked itinerary, Delta will initiate a full, automatic refund back to the original form of payment of the unflown portion of the ticket, following a 24-hour waiting period.

Customers who experience a cancellation and are not automatically rebooked should promptly contact Delta either at the airport or by reaching out to our Reservations team by phone or the Message Us option via the Fly Delta app, so we can explore alternative flight options. Per Department of Transportation automatic refund requirements, Delta will initiate an automatic ticket refund of the unflown portion of the ticket if we are unable to rebook the trip and have not heard from the customer to arrange an alternative flight.

More information can be found on the Refund and Reimbursement section of delta.com.

Other recent weather advisories

Southern California Wildfires (Jan. 8-10)

Central-Southeast Winter Weather (Jan. 9)