Delta's flight disruptions hit its premium brand image

Among the big U.S. carriers, Delta Air Lines has assiduously built a reputation as a premium airline, touting its punctual and reliable operations relative to peers. But over the last several days, its brand image has been dented. Following a global cyber outage, the Atlanta-based airline has been the slowest among major U.S. carriers to recover. Since last Friday, Delta has canceled more than 6,000 flights, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded. Analysts estimate the hit to its bottom line could be in the hundreds of millions. Delta's operations recovered on Thursday, with the carrier cancelling just two flights as of 10:30 AM EST, according to data from FlightAware. Its disruptions were the latest in a series of unexpected problems that have hit individual U.S. airlines over the last few years. United Airlines bore the brunt of weather disruptions last year around the July Fourth holiday weekend. Southwest Airlines (LUV.N), opens new tab suffered an operational meltdown around the Christmas holidays in 2022 that upended travel plans for 2m customers. Prior to the cyber outage, Delta's reputation was strong, with aviation analytics firm Cirium and consultancy OAG ranking it as the most punctual airline in North America in both 2024 and 2023.<br/>"That (premium) image has now taken a hit," said Conor Cunningham, an analyst at Melius Research, adding the disruptions would result in a hit of at least $350m to its operating margin in the September quarter.<br/>