Delta's top-notch reputation takes a knock after flight cancellations

Delta could soon be back on board after an unprecedented rash of cancellations , delays and confusion connected to a global CrowdStrike outage that soured many of the hometown company's customers.

Why it matters: The rural Georgia crop-dusting company turned Fortune 500 juggernaut is Atlanta's largest private employer and controls the majority of passenger travel at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

• It's also the way out to the largest number of destinations for metro Atlantans.

The big picture: Delta is one of the industry's most-awarded and consistently on-time airlines, and shares the Harris 100 Poll's top spot for the most respected air passenger travel brand with Alaskan.

• However, nothing dents a company's armor like more than 5,000 flight cancellations, leaving people stranded at airports and waiting on hold.

State of play: Operations fully recovered by July 26, a Delta spokesperson told Axios, and the company has offered impacted passengers miles and reimbursement for some expenses.

• The company's chief information officer Rahul Samant told employees in a memo that Delta's created a team to conduct "a full after-action review" of the event, the AJC reports .

Yes, but: The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched an investigation into the meltdown.

Reality check: Thrifty Traveler executive editor Kyle Potter tells Axios that the cancellations and bad press could ward off some travelers.

• But Delta's core customer segment — business travelers, people who live in Delta cities like Atlanta, and customers with rewards program credit cards — will likely stick around because they don't have a realistic alternative, he said.
• The potential reputational damage to Delta, Potter said, matters more on how the airline communicated with and made customers whole during the meltdown and in the following days than the actual travel disruption.

Case in point: In 2022, Southwest canceled more than 17,000 flights over a 10-day holiday travel period. The meltdown cost the airline more than $1 billion, Reuters reported .

• Today, the Dallas-based airline is still flying, and in the middle of Delta's meltdown announced the end of the company's open-seating system .

The latest: Yesterday, Delta hired the influential lawyer David Boies to seek potential damages from Microsoft and CrowdStrike, CNBC reported .