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Delta outage continuing to delay travel for thousands

The backlog from Monday's cancelations continued into Monday night, and Delta Air Lines was still not telling its customers how much longer it would take to get back on schedule. 

Customers wait in line at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after a Delta Air Lines computer outage grounded flights Monday morning.

The backlog from Monday's cancelations continued into Monday night, and Delta Air Lines was still not telling its customers how much longer it would take to get back on schedule.

Delta was expecting to cancel another 100 flights Tuesday morning, and said some 200 more flights would probably be delayed Tuesday morning.

Delta passengers, bumped from hundreds of cancelled flights, were desperately trying to get onto later flights that were filling up fast.

Case-in-point: Martina Smith and her mother Rosetta, trying to find a replacement flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles so Martina could catch a flight to Australia. She stood in one long line for nearly an hour, she said, only to be told by a Delta agent at the head of the line that she'd been standing the wrong line. She was not optimistic she would get to her flight to Australia on time.

Delta is still investigating what happened to shut its systems down early Monday morning. At first the carrier said it was a power outage at its Atlanta headquarters, but Georgia Power says no, it was a Delta equipment failure.

The meltdown was so severe that Delta backup systems were not working.

One passenger at London's Heathrow Airport posted his Delta boarding pass online -- handwritten by a computerless gate agent.

By Monday night, more than 870 Delta flights had been canceled worldwide, and another 2,400 flights had been delayed.

The CEO of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian, had issued an online apology earlier in the day on Monday.

At first, Delta promised passengers they could change flights without a change fee, but by Monday night, Delta was also offering vouchers of $200 for each passenger whose flight was canceled, or whose flight was delayed for more than three hours.

Delta's Meltdown Began Early Monday Morning

Delta said the outage began around 2:30 a.m., and almost three hours later, a ground stop was instituted on all departing flights around the globe. Flight plans and other vital flight information could not be input into the computers, forcing the carrier to ground the flights.

By 8:30 a.m., Delta began to release aircraft, but cancelations were substantial.

According to the company, more than 600 flights have been canceled.

Monday afternoon, Delta CEO Ed Bastian issued a video apology, saying:

I’m Ed Bastian. I’m speaking to you today from our operations and customer center where we’ve got Delta teams working around the clock to restore our system capability. As I’m sure you can appreciate, it’s a all hands on deck effort. We lost power about 2:30 this morning, which caused us to implement the ground stop that we put in place at five.

I apologize for the challenges this has created for you with your travel experience. The Delta team is working very, very hard to restore and get these systems back as quickly as possible.

For those of you who have been inconvenienced and need to access and make changes to your travel plans, we have instituted system-wide waivers and you can access those either through delta.com or by talking to any of our reservation agents.

I appreciate the hard work the Delta team and the Delta people are doing to bring our system back up as quickly and safely as possible. And once again I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused to you our customer.

(transcript by Atlanta Business Chronicle)

Thousands of travelers were temporarily stranded while the flights grounded. On Twitter, Delta encouraged customers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport. Some customers complained that their app and boarding information weren't updated to reflect the delay.

UPDATE | Delta flights take off after worldwide computer outage strands thousands

The company announced the grounding early Monday in a statement to their website.

"Delta has experienced a computer outage that has affected flights scheduled for this morning. Flights awaiting departure are currently delayed. Flights enroute are operating normally. Delta is advising travelers to check the status of their flights this morning while the issue is being addressed."

Since then, Delta announced that they're offering waivers and refunds for customers impacted by the cancelations and delays.

RELATED | Delta Air Lines stock tumbles amid global outage

Customers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were seen standing in line at the check-in counters because self-check in kiosks were not working and they were unable to check in on their mobile devices. Some of those features are being restored.

A passenger waiting in line around 6:30 said his plan was to wait on his 8:00 flight, but said the check-in process is "irritating."

"If you look at the desk, they've only got two people working and obviously they've got a major problem. You think they'd kinda muster more agents to help their customers."

Photos | Customers stranded after Delta outage

Another customer said they were "blindsided" by the outage when they arrived to the airport two hours early for their flight.

Delta apologized for the delay saying, "our teams are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible."

Photos | Behind the scene at Delta Air Lines

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