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Delta Air Lines blamed a “physical device issue” for a systems failure that forced the carrier to briefly ground all domestic flights earlier last week. CE Ed Bastian Friday provided few details about the cause of the disruption. He referred to the Sept 25 problem as “a hiccup” and said it wasn’t a technology application issue. The disruption was the third in as many years to force the airline to shut operations. While airlines can’t eliminate all vulnerability to such incidents, Bastian said they have become less frequent and shorter in duration. “If you went back a few years ago and had that outage, I think it probably would have taken us several hours to recover,” he said. “Today it was 26 minutes, and next year hopefully there won’t be any.” International and regional US operations weren’t affected by the latest problem. <br/>

Air France CE Franck Terner resigned Sept 27, leaving the new Air France-KLM Group CE running both companies. Ben Smith, a former Air Canada executive who became Air France-KLM Group CE Sept 17, will also head Air France, but until no later than Dec 31. While Terner’s departure under new management was not a complete industry surprise, the suddenness of it means more turmoil for an airline that is locked in a long-running dispute with its unions over salaries, a dispute that led to the resignation of the group’s former CE in May. With Terner’s departure, Anne-Marie Couderc, chair of the Air France-KLM and Air France boards of directors, said Smith’s priority will be “to define Air France's short- and medium-term strategic vision, find a solution to salary issues and set up a new company governance structure." <br/>