Delta CEO Gives End Date for Company's Travel Meltdown

The global IT outage last week grounded thousands of flights around the world and left millions of passengers stranded with no way of getting to their destination. In the days since then, airlines have steadily gotten back online and resumed normal operations. 

Delta Air Lines, however, has been the slowest major U.S. airline to get back up and running—so much so that the Department of Transportation launched an investigation into the company for its response. Now, the airline's CEO is offering a clear timeline of when Delta will be back to 100 percent functionality. 

Delta CEO Ed Bastian offered an update in a note to statement sent out July 24. 

"While our initial efforts to stabilize the operations were difficult and frustratingly slow and complex, we have made good progress this week and the worst impacts of the CrowdStrike-caused outage are clearly behind us," Bastian said. "Delays and cancellations were down 50 percent Tuesday [July 23] compared to Monday [July 22], and we anticipate cancellations Wednesday [July 24] to be minimal. Thursday [July 25] is expected to be a normal day, with the airline fully recovered and operating at a traditional level of reliability."

Things seem to be moving in the right direction. "As of Wednesday morning, Delta's operations were returning to normal," the airline said in a statement, per CBS News. "Ed remains fully engaged with senior operations leaders."

Bastian emphasized in his memo that Delta was dedicated to "taking care of those whose flights may still be impacted, with meals, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation offered through vouchers and reimbursements." 

With the Olympics in Paris just a few days away, the meltdown of Team USA's official airline couldn't have come at a worse time.