Skift Take
A good operational meltdown like Delta's should make travelers nostalgic for the good old days, when carriers regularly cooperated to help each other's passengers.
When major U.S. airlines suffered operational meltdowns in the past, they could usually rebook passengers on competitors, allowing more travelers to reach their destinations faster. But as both Delta and Southwest customers have learned recently, airlines no longer cooperate as closely as they once did.
The good news is that Delta's operation has improved, and the airline canceled far fewer flights Wednesday than on Monday and Tuesday. But it will take some time before Delta, which suffered a technological outage Monday morning, will resume normal operations, and the airline is still permitting passengers to rebook for another date for free. Delta is also giving $200 vouchers to customers whose flights were canceled or delayed more than three hours.
A massive computer outage would have been a major issue for an airline in any era, but it perhaps more problematic today, as carriers can no longer to re-book customers on other airlines as seamlessly as they could as recently as two years ago.
There are several reasons why. One is that load factors are higher today, so airlines have fewer empty last-minute seats availab
