Expert: Delta Airlines Power Outage A "Wake-Up Call"
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DALLAS (CBS11) - A long travel day just got even longer for Shanese Sims and her sisters on Monday.
Getting home from a family reunion in Dallas is testing their patience because of Delta Airlines' power outage that grounded all flights for six hours.
"We were originally an hour delayed, we found out we're four hours delayed. And by the time we get to our connecting flight at LaGuardia, we're going to be an hour late for our connecting flight. So now, we're not going to get home until almost midnight," said Sims.
Mark Drusch is a former executive at both Delta and Continental Airlines.
Simply to have a power shortage should not have shut down Delta globally," said Drusch.
Delta's issues come three weeks after Dallas-based Southwest Airlines had a similar outage.
A Southwest spokeswoman says a note-book sized router failed but didn't trip a back-up as designed, causing delays and cancellations.
"This is a wake-up call for all the airlines," said Drusch.
While Southwest says it's upgrading its routers, software, and other technology, Drusch says Delta's outage is likely leading all the airlines to ask lots of questions.
"What happens if we have a power shortage here in Dallas, what happens if we have a hurricane, what happens if we have a tornado, you're double, triple checking all of your back-up plans and you're telling everyone, you know what, I want to have another back-up plan," said Drusch.
Drusch says Delta passengers should pay attention to the airline's social media and website.
Passengers though like Shanese Sims have suggestions for Delta.
"I think they should have way more people helping people out at the counter. From where I can see of the service, there's only two and there should be a lot more than that."
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