Editor's note: The following update was shared internally with all Delta employees on Tuesday, July 23:

The past few days have been extraordinarily difficult across Delta following the CrowdStrike outage on Friday morning. The efforts of Delta people have been nothing short of heroic and we’re moving firmly in the right direction. 

“Teams are working around the clock to reposition planes and people to where they need to be so we can return to normal operations by the end of the week,” said John Laughter, Chief of Operations and President, Delta TechOps. “We’re seeing solid day-over-day progress across operating metrics that the entire team should be proud of.”

Some highlights of the team’s efforts to return the Delta operation to normal include: 

• Mainline cancellations are trending downward with 50% fewer cancels day over day.  
• Atlanta flight volumes continue to return to scale; we’re operating 43% more throughput than yesterday. 
• Open trips for pilots started today down nearly 50% day over day; both pilot and flight attendant open time levels are starting to return to normal.
• Our crew tracking system queue that builds trip rotations contained a backlog of issues that is down 75% in the last 36 hours, and well on its way to normal. 
• We’re making progress working through misplaced bags and leveraging our delivery partners to reunite customers with their belongings.

“With our collective focus, we will continue this momentum to be in good shape ahead of the busy weekend,” Laughter said.

Across the operation, Delta people on the ground, in the air and behind the scenes are working tirelessly to care for customers and each other. Through it all, we’re encouraged by the countless compliments we’re receiving from customers who are grateful for the level of care Delta people continue to deliver, even during this challenging time. Thanks to the 1,500 volunteers who’ve stepped up to support our teams through Behind the Wings shifts across the system. 

“We know this hasn’t been easy. We have every confidence that Delta will quickly reclaim its position as the industry-leading, on-time machine that our customers have come to expect from us,” said Allison Ausband, Chief Customer Experience Officer. “In the meantime, keep supporting each other and our customers, and we’ll continue to keep you informed every step of the way.”