On: Thousands of Delta passengers delayed by computer outage

[planetjones]

I would add Resourcing to the list. Have Delta airlines joined the mob of traditional big businesses who decide technology is expensive and send it to the cheapest possible?

Alternatively it could just be an catastrophic infrastructure failure.

[brightball → planetjones]

Not likely. All of Delta's scheduling software is in straight assembly.

Deltas generally regarded as the well oiled machine of the airline industry. You're paying for always on time and consistent quality.

It's one of the reasons a story like this is surprising.

[spyrosg → brightball]

Interesting! Are there any source listings anywhere? Do they have particular programming tools or methods that help them deal with the complexity? If it's all assembly, I'm surprised this is only happening now.

[brightball → spyrosg]

Been that way for at least 2 decades. There's a big company in Atlanta that does all of it but I forget the name.

No source listings that I know of.

[ganoushoreilly → brightball]

While I don't doubt their investment in their software stack to manage operations, Delta is hardly always on time nor consistent. I fly them 2-3 times a month and for the past two months (including today) every flight has has delayed (to and from destination) with only one being weather related.

[nradov → ganoushoreilly]

Anecdotes from individual travelers are interesting but not very relevant or useful. The DoT publishes statistics for airline on time performance.

http://www.transtats.bts.gov/ot_delay/OT_DelayCause1.asp