Delta CEO, in Paris for Olympics, says outage-related cancellations should stop Thursday

Delta Air Lines canceled far fewer flights Wednesday, and the airline’s chief executive said the cancellations and delays resulting from a Global technology failure should end on Thursday.

The airline broadcast a message from Ed Bastian to customers while the CEO was in Paris to attend the Summer Olympics.

In his message, Bastian apologized to travelers whose plans were disrupted. Delta has canceled more than 6,500 flights, far more than any other airline, since key systems were crippled by the technology outage.

“While our initial efforts to stabilize operations have been difficult and frustrating, slow and complex, we have made good progress this week and the worst impacts of the CrowdStrike outage are clearly behind us,” Bastian said.

CrowdStrike is the cybersecurity company whose faulty software update Error messages sent to computers running Microsoft Windows caused flight cancellations and disruptions to banks, hospitals and retailers starting Friday morning.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating why Delta failed to recover as quickly as other airlines. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday that the department would also review Delta Customer Serviceincluding “unacceptable” queues for help and reports of unaccompanied minors being stranded at airports.

Buttigieg said the department has received more than 3,000 complaints about Delta since the outage began.

Delta had canceled about 50 flights as of midday Wednesday, according to tracking service FlightAware, not including its Delta Connection regional affiliates. That’s down from more than 500 cancellations, or 14% of its schedule, on Tuesday.

As recently as Sunday, three out of four Delta flights were canceled or delayed.

Bastian said Delta expects Thursday to be “a normal day, with the airline fully recovered and operating at a traditional level of reliability.”

The CEO said Delta is committed to taking care of customers whose flights are affected, “by providing meals, hotel rooms and ground transportation in the form of vouchers and refunds.” Those passengers will also receive airline miles and travel vouchers “as an additional gesture of apology,” he added.

Bastian was in Paris for the Olympics, which open Friday. Delta is the U.S. team’s airline sponsor. Olympic teamand the airline said he was meeting business partners while in Paris.

“Ed delayed this long-planned business trip until he was confident the airline was on the path to recovery,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement. “As of Wednesday morning, Delta operations were returning to normal. Ed remains fully engaged with senior operations leaders.”

Bastian traveled to Paris on a scheduled Delta flight, the Atlanta-based airline said.