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Delta Lost $125 Million in Five Days Following Recent Atlanta Storms

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Delta said a five-day backup of flights earlier this month cost the company $125 million.
The issue began at Delta's Atlanta hub as severe storms hit the city for much of the day April 5.

Delta Air Lines said five days of backups and flight cancellations stemming from several rounds of April 5 storms in Atlanta cost the company $125 million in revenue.

Over the course of those five days, some 4,000 Delta flights were canceled, according to USA Today. The multiple waves of fierce storms that came into the Atlanta area were spaced out just enough that they were distinctly separate from one another, but not far enough that operations could be resumed for long at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport April 5. As a result, the world's busiest airport was shut down for nearly the entire day.

While those storms didn't last for five days, their effects were felt by the airline for that long. According to Buzzfeed News, as flights got delayed, Delta's computer system lost track of crew members, and a domino effect began. Flights couldn't take off without crew, and thousands of customers were out of luck.

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Delta Airlines planes are seen at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on July 17, 2015.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

"Our recovery was hampered by a lack of available seats to accommodate customers as well as a failure of crew tracking systems to adequately position our people to do their jobs," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian in an internal memo acquired by Buzzfeed News.

Delta also endured a $150 million loss from a power outage that occurred last August, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. During that outage, 2,300 flights were canceled, the report added. But on April 5, it was a totally different set of circumstances that caused the backup – this time, it was Mother Nature.

"There were seven different thunderstorm cells that happened at a rapid-fire basis starting from early morning to evening," said Bastian, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We had the virtual shutdown of Atlanta for the better part of the entire day."

And although Delta has plenty of experience with all types of weather, large spring break crowds combined with multiple waves of storms left the company's hands tied at the Atlanta hub.

"We were not able to get out of the way," Bastian told USA Today. "It hit us as we were right in the middle of one of the busiest travel periods of the year."

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