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Technology issues forced Delta Air Lines to temporarily suspend all domestic departures on Tuesday night, causing widespread disruption for travelers across the country.
The company's Twitter account began responding to customers with delays as early as 6:50 pm, saying it had problems with its computer tracking systems. Around 8:30 pm, the airline issued a brief statement, acknowledging the problem and apologizing.
Just before 21:20, Delta announced that all its computer systems had been restored and that "all ground stops were lifted". The company described the problem as a "technological problem" that "briefly affected some of our systems tonight". lasted about an hour and the delays on Wednesday morning were expected to be minimal.
But during Tuesday night's problems, people rushed to Twitter against the company – which serves over 180 million customers each year – demanding to know why they could not book flights, print tickets or get on their planes .
In Las Vegas, restless travelers said they waited in long queues to book alternative flights and deal with delays that were going on in the night of Tuesday. In Detroit, One customer claimed that a plane failure combined with widespread problems had forced her to be stuck at the airport for nine hours. And in Atlanta, Delta's headquarters and largest hub, a line of unmanned planes crossed the runway, carrying passengers who could not disembark.
"What about a van and a scale?", Wrote a customer on Facebook. "Get us out of this plane."
The temporary ground stop affected all Delta domestic flights, called "main lines", but not those operated by Delta by small contract airlines. This did not affect the flights that took off.
While Delta has not faced a recent public relations fiasco that has hit some of those recently suffered by United Airlines, the company has always had its share of turbulence.
In March, Georgian legislators withdrew a tax relief proposal to Delta in retaliation for its decision to terminate a promotional discount for members of the National Rifle Association. (Governor of Georgia reinstated tax relief in July). In June, the company reduced its profit forecast in response to the sharp rise in fuel prices, which resulted in a 1% drop in its stock.
Andrew R. Chow, Melissa Gomez and Zach Wichter contributed to the reports.
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