WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Monday it had closed an investigation, without seeking any penalties, into a July 2024 meltdown at Delta Air Lines sparked by a global outage that disrupted the travel plans of 1.3 million customers and cost the carrier $500 million.
The Biden administration opened a probe into Delta following the CrowdStrike computer software outage, after other major carriers were able to resume normal operations much faster.
A U.S. Transportation Department spokesperson said the review showed that "Delta's passengers received prompt refunds, adequate baggage assistance, and appropriate assistance for passengers with disabilities."
Under U.S. President Donald Trump, USDOT has been moving to roll back some aviation consumer protection initiatives unveiled by the administration of then-President Joe Biden and has reversed a number of penalties.
Delta said in a statement it was grateful USDOT recognized "the catastrophic circumstances we faced as an industry during the unprecedented outage and its dismissal of the investigation citing how we cared for customers, which included millions of dollars in refunds, hotels, food and baggage assistance."
USDOT said its decision to close the probe included direction to Delta "to provide adequate customer service assistance including timely notification of the right to seek a refund."
Politico was first on Monday to report the decision, which was made in November.
In December, USDOT waived an $11 million fine imposed on Southwest Airlines as part of a $140 million settlement over the carrier's meltdown in December 2022 during a busy holiday travel period.
The department also waived $16.7 million to American Airlines issued in 2024 as part of a settlement over the carrier's treatment of disabled passengers and wheelchairs.
Last month, Reuters reported that the Federal Aviation Administration closed its investigation into airlines that did not comply with required flight cuts at 40 major airports during the 2025 government shutdown without seeking any fines.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and Sonali Paul)
