Just three weeks after thousands of Southwest Airlines flights were canceled due to a technical problem, rival firm Delta Air Lines experienced a similar catastrophic system failure on Monday, resulting in the cancellation of about 1,000 flights and the delays for about 2,900 others.

The massive system failure resulted from a power outage in the company's headquarters, located in Atlanta. According to a spokesman for Georgia Power, the cause of the outage seemed to be solely due to the company's equipment, since no other customers lost power in the area.

Trebor Banstetter, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, explained that the power outage, which happened at around 2:30 a.m. EST, was caused by a failed switchgear, a piece of equipment very similar to conventional circuit breakers. What was particularly notable, however, was the fact that key systems and network equipment did not automatically switch over to backup systems once the outage happened.

Nevertheless, Banstetter stated that the airline does not believe that the system failure was the result of a cyber attack.

Delta Air Lines' systems were back online a few hours later, but the damage to its intricate booking systems was already done. With its passengers being stuck in lines for hours due to the system breakdown, the airline has announced that it would be handing out refunds and travel vouchers to passengers who were affected by the technical breakdown on Monday.

In an official announcement, Delta Air Lines stated that it would be offering refunds in the form of $200 travel vouchers for passengers who were directly affected by the system issues. Apart from this, Delta has also announced that passengers who would wish to change their flights can do so without paying a fee.

Unsurprisingly, many passengers were disgruntled by the delays, especially since the power outage affected all of the airlines' systems. Thus, even those who were monitoring the status of their flights through mobile devices were not aware of Delta's massive system failure.

Ashley Roache, one of the passengers whose flight was delayed, expressed her frustration over the incident.

"By the time I showed up at the gate the employees were already disgruntled, and it was really difficult to get anybody to speak to me or get any information. The company could have done a better job of explaining what was happening," Roache stated.

Not all passengers were furious about the incident, however. Ryan Shannon, one of the airline's frequent flyers, stated that such delays are always possible.

"Once Delta cleared flights to take off, we boarded and didn't have any problems. There is always a delay, or weather, or something. I travel weekly, so I'm used to it," he said.

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