Delta CEO says Microsoft is "probably the most fragile platform" after it lost "half a billion dollars in five days" during the CrowdStrike outage

Delta Air Lines CEO on CrowdStrike outage: Cost us half a billion dollars in five days - YouTube Delta Air Lines CEO on CrowdStrike outage: Cost us half a billion dollars in five days - YouTube
Watch On

What you need to know

  • Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says the CrowdStrike outage that toppled Microsoft's services cost the airline $500 million.
  • The executive says the incident has forced him to rethink the airline's partnership with Microsoft and CrowdStrike while touting Apple's apparent 'immunity' to repeated outages.
  •  The airline is seeking damages amounting to $500 million from Microsoft and CrowdStrike. However, the former has only offered free IT consultation advice, while the latter touted $10 Uber Eats gift cards for those affected.

The global digital pandemic caused by a buggy CrowdStrike kernel driver update that left over 8.5 million Windows devices with BSoD errors for hours might have been resolved; it consistently places CrowdStrike and Microsoft between a rock and a hard place. 

Earlier this week, Delta Air Lines, one of the many companies whose operations were crippled by the global IT outage, hired bigshot attorney David Boies to seek damages amounting to over $350 million from Microsoft and CrowdStrike. While Microsoft wasn't directly responsible for the massive outage, it's seemingly bottled up in the whole fiasco alongside CrowdStrike.

More recently, Delta CEO Ed Bastian touched base with CNBC to discuss the digital pandemic that left thousands of passengers stranded across airports. The company reportedly lost between $350 million to $500 million after approximately 7,000 people canceled their flights, coupled with 176,000 refund and reimbursement requests. Delta CEO claims the company incurred costs of more than 40,000 servers that they were forced to tamper with to rest the system. 

"When was the last time you heard of a big outage at Apple?" responded Bastian after being asked whether Delta was reconsidering its partnership with Microsoft and CrowdStrike after the massive outage. Bastian indicated Microsoft is "probably the most fragile platform."

Aside from the statement and apology issued by CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz and the 'erroneous' $10 Uber Eats gift card, affected companies and organizations haven't been compensated for the losses incurred during the massive outage. However, Microsoft and CrowdStrike have seemingly offered Delta Air Lines free consultation advice. 

Delta is among the first companies impacted by the massive outage to seek compensation. However, CrowdStrike shareholders have seemingly joined the fray earlier this week by filing a proposed class action (via Reuters). 

🔥The hottest trending deals🔥

Delta is looking beyond Microsoft and CrowdStrike for 'exceptional' customer service

Apple logo on a building. (Image credit: Future)

Delta CEO mentioned big tech corporations like Microsoft have seemingly shifted their focus to generative AI efforts, leaving little room for the rest of their core services. He added that both companies have failed to deliver "exceptional" service to their existing customer base.

According to Delta CEO Ed Bastian:

“If you’re going to have priority access to the Delta ecosystem... you’ve gotta test this stuff. You can’t come into a mission-critical, 24-7 operation and tell us, ‘We have a bug.’ It doesn’t work.”

"I have tremendous respect for Microsoft and Satya, but they are building the future and must make sure they fortify the current," says Delta CEO Ed Bastian. "We thought we had the best (fortification) between Microsoft and CrowdStrike."

Microsoft and CrowdStrike have elaborate measures to prevent the issue from reoccurring, including restricting security software like CrowdStrike's Falcon from accessing Windows 11 at a kernel level. Apple similarly restricts third-party developers from accessing its operating system at the kernel level.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, a Microsoft spokesman indicated the firm "cannot legally wall off its operating system in the same way Apple does because of an understanding it reached with the European Commission following a complaint." However, the EU refuted the claims while speaking to The Verge and indicated, "Microsoft is free to decide on its business model and to adapt its security infrastructure to respond to threats provided this is done in line with EU competition law."

CATEGORIES
Kevin Okemwa
Contributor

Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. You'll also catch him occasionally contributing at iMore about Apple and AI. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.

Read more
This is fine meme with the Microsoft logo on the dog surrounded by flames.
Microsoft News Roundup: Nightmare week of price hikes, rebrands, and remembering how Bill Gates lost $400 billion
Microsoft CFO Amy Hood.
Microsoft CFO urges employees to "focus" amid recent AI developments like OpenAI's $500 billion Stargate project — but Satya Nadella says DeepSeek is good for business
Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce Inc., speaks during a press conference at the 2024 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says Microsoft "repackaged OpenAI and dropped it into Excel" — Customers barely use Copilot, and that's when they don't have a ChatGPT license
Bill Gates speaks onstage for a special conversation during "What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates"
Bill Gates says he'd "hide from the press" if former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer traded "the new and hot OS" for Windows 10
Cloud servers
Microsoft has killed "several" data center projects in the U.S. and Europe, according to reports
Xbox and PlayStation logos on top of a server room backdrop
PlayStation Network's outage over the weekend should serve as a reminder to Microsoft and Xbox on what can happen if you "put all your eggs into one basket"
Latest in Microsoft
Cloud servers
Microsoft has killed "several" data center projects in the U.S. and Europe, according to reports — Microsoft responds (Updated)
Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, former CEOs of Microsoft.
Bill Gates says Satya Nadella almost missed the cut for CEO of Microsoft — Even with Steve Ballmer's support
HP Reverb G2 VR headset
Was Windows Mixed Reality as bad as I remember? I look back at the failed VR platform that was ahead of its time.
Microsoft Majorana 1 chip designed for quantum computing
Microsoft dismisses quantum computing skepticism: "There is a century-old scientific process established by the American Physical Society for resolving disputes"
The Microsoft logo on a smartphone and laptop arranged in Crockett, California, US, on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.
"Would you say there is a reasonable balance between what you contribute to Microsoft and what you get in return?" Two-thirds of Microsoft employees say YES — as AI engineers get preferential compensation packages.
Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii screenshot
Microsoft blocks (some) Windows 11 pirates while Lenovo steals the show at Mobile World Congress
Latest in News
Windows 11 Wallpaper
Microsoft publishes Windows roadmap as it promises transparency around feature availability
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies mode screenshots for Shattered Veil map.
The next Call of Duty Zombies map, "Shattered Veil", is dropping earlier than expected
Helldivers 2
The new Helldivers 2 Illuminate Major Order is so important that we got a new stratagem for it
Hogwarts Legacy troll hero image
Hogwarts Legacy DLC reportedly canceled by WB Games
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Rumored Ubisoft and Tencent agreement comes to fruition with 25% stake and new division for the Assassin's Creed developer
In-game screenshot of the player consuming an enemy in Shadow Labyrinth
This isn't your grandpa's Pac-Man — Bandai Namco's iconic character gets a gritty new action game this Summer