Why airlines’ computer systems crash so often

An Airline boss’s worst nightmare is one of its planes crashing; but this was not far off. Early in the morning of August 8th, at the Atlanta headquarters of Delta Air Lines, America’s second-biggest carrier, a malfunctioning power-control system in its data centre managed to crash the entire airline’s computer systems. Unable to access customer records or to compile passenger lists ahead of aircraft take-offs to meet security requirements, the entire airline ground to a halt for about five hours. 

That forced Delta to cancel more than 2,000 flights over the next few days, delay several hundred thousands of passengers’ journeys, and probably cost it at least tens of millions of dollars in compensation and lost revenue. 

Although the IT glitch was one of the most disruptive to have hit the industry over the past year, Delta is by no means the only airline to have been brought to a halt by such a problem. All three of its main rivals in America have had similar stumble