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Delta airborne again after outage

Delta Airlines says systems are coming back online and that the majority of the flight schedule will be flown Monday after "automation issues" caused delays across the country, including at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

MINNEAPOLIS - Delta Airlines says systems are coming back online and that the majority of the flight schedule will be flown Monday after "automation issues" caused delays across the country, including at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Around 6 p.m. CST Sunday, social media lit up with word of long lines and delays at Delta terminals. A Federal Aviation Administration advisory stated Delta flights were grounded due to "automation issues." The airline says 170 flights were canceled Sunday, with another 110 scratched Monday, and many flights that did go on did so with significant delays.

“I want to apologize to all of our customers who have been impacted by this frustrating situation,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. “This type of disruption is not acceptable to the Delta family who prides itself on reliability and customer service. I also want to thank our employees who are working tirelessly to accommodate our customers.”

The outage lasted about five hours. The Atlanta-based airline reports approximately 150 flights were canceled Sunday night, with more expected. Up to 80 flights at MSP were impacted by the outage.

The glitch did not go unnoticed by President Trump, who blamed the airline and protesters demonstrating against his controversial executive order on immigrant travelers for congestion at airports Sunday.

Trump's tweets: "Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,.....protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!"

At MSP many passengers went home after they were told they could rebook without penalty. A waiver has been issued for travel scheduled on Jan. 29 and 30, for rebooking by Feb. 3.

Airports in Atlanta, New York City, Houston, Tucson, Austin, and others also experienced delays, according to social media accounts.

Around 8 p.m., Delta announced anyone who was flying without checked baggage would be allowed to check in. Those who had already checked in were confused at the gates because Delta's computers wouldn't read their "E-tickets."

Some were stuck in the terminal lines. Others were stuck on the tarmac.

"I'm from Minnesota and I just came back for the weekend, so I'm flying out tonight to get back for classes tomorrow, but that's not going to happen," said Jessie Boof of Minnesota.

"I'd like to get home. I have a baby at home, and a wife that are waiting for me, I haven't seen in about five days," said Corey Sorrento of Oklahoma.

In August, Delta suffered a computer breakdown after a power outage in its operations center. The airline canceled more than 2,000 flights over three days.

One week ago, United Airlines grounded its domestic flights due to a computer outage. Last Sunday, U.S. officials said the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, was having issues with low bandwidth, according to USA Today.

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