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Delta Air Lines on Friday filed a lawsuit against CrowdStrike in Georgia, accusing the security software vendor of breach of contract and negligence after an outage in July that brought down millions of computers and prompted 7,000 flight cancelations. Other airlines recovered more quickly than Atlanta-based Delta, which said the incident reduced revenue by $380m and brought $170m in costs. The flawed software update affected computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Days after the outage, Delta hired David Boies of law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to seek damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft. Delta asked for damages to cover its losses, along with litigation costs and punitive damages. “CrowdStrike caused a global catastrophe because it cut corners, took shortcuts, and circumvented the very testing and certification processes it advertised, for its own benefit and profit,” Delta said in its complaint. “If CrowdStrike had tested the Faulty Update on even one computer before deployment, the computer would have crashed.” Delta had disabled automatic updates from CrowdStrike but this one reached its computers anyway, the airline said in the suit. Delta claimed that CrowdStrike’s Falcon software created and exploited an unauthorized door in Windows that the airline said it never would have allowed. “The havoc that was created deserves, in my opinion, to be fully compensated for,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC in an interview earlier this month. CEO George Kurtz has apologized for the incident, and the company has committed to changing its practices to prevent similar events. In August, CrowdStrike lowered its full-year guidance because of a customer commitment package related to the outage. “While we aimed to reach a business resolution that puts customers first, Delta has chosen a different path,” a CrowdStrike spokesperson told CNBC in an email. “Delta’s claims are based on disproven misinformation, demonstrate a lack of understanding of how modern cybersecurity works, and reflect a desperate attempt to shift blame for its slow recovery away from its failure to modernize its antiquated IT infrastructure.”<br/>

Czech Airlines has ceased to be a member of the SkyTeam alliance, following a change to the company’s business model that involves associate airline Smartwings taking over its operations. SkyTeam says the carrier’s membership ended effective 26 October. As a result of the structural change, Czech Airlines will no longer operate passenger or cargo flights under its ‘OK’ designator code. Czech Airlines had stated earlier this year that the revision would take place at the beginning of the winter season on 27 October. While its CSA brand will remain in existence, the flight operations are shifting to Smartwings and its subsidiary companies, while CSA becomes a holding organisation. The measure is aimed at improving efficiency by taking advantage of synergies between the two companies. Smartwings, which operates under the ‘QS’ designator code, has a fleet of Boeing 737s, including the 737 Max, but will also use Airbus A320s and A220s in Czech Airlines colours. SkyTeam insists the withdrawal of Czech Airlines – which agreed to join the alliance in 2000 – will have “little impact” on the group’s network, and the Prague hub will remain connected through five member carriers.<br/>