Delta Airlines has stranded thousands of its passengers after a power cut forced the carrier to suspend flights earlier on Monday.
Affected were Delta flights throughout the United States, Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Airport check-in systems, passenger advisory screens, smartphone apps as well as the airline’s website were impacted by the system failure.
The airline had to cancel many flights, while ticket agents had to fill out boarding passes by hand.
“Our systems are down everywhere” the airline said in a statement on Twitter.
Around the world, passengers complained of long check-in lines and many passengers slept on the floors of the airports, waiting for their flights.
Delta Airlines statement said that a power failure caused their computer systems to crash. The power failure took place overnight in Atlanta, near Delta’s headquarters. Delta ranks as the #3 airline in the world for passengers carried according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Delta’s website says the carrier serves 180 million travelers a year.
The airline advises it’s customers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
We are investigating the cause of today’s outage, but our focus right now is on our customers and getting our operations back to normal.
— Delta (@Delta) August 8, 2016
Delta Airlines is the latest carrier to suffer from computer problems. Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights after an outage prevented travelers from checking in.
Delta Airlines had purchased Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines back in 2008 in a $2.6 billion dollar merger that created the world’s biggest airline.
