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Beijing, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The impact of the widespread outage of Microsoft Windows devices on the U.S. aviation industry continues. The latest data from a U.S. flight tracking website showed that another 1,461 domestic and international flights were canceled on July 21, with Delta Airlines and United Airlines being the hardest hit.

Delta Air Lines, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, canceled about 1,000 flights scheduled to take off on the 21st, equivalent to more than a quarter of the scheduled flights, and delayed about 1,700 flights, with a delay rate of 46%. In the previous two days, Delta Air Lines and its subsidiaries operating regional routes in the United States had canceled about 3,500 flights.

Passengers travel at Chicago International Airport in the United States on July 19. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yan Liang

Delta's massive flight cancellations and delays have caused its passengers to be stranded at airports across the United States. Some people chose to rent a car and drive themselves, while others could only wait to arrange new flights, which might take several days, or simply cancel their trips.

Delta Airlines has not yet given a timetable for when flights will resume normal operations. According to the latest information from the flight tracking website, Delta has canceled 137 flights scheduled for the 22nd.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian sent an email to customers explaining that the outage affected Delta Air Lines' Microsoft Windows system equipment, specifically its "crew tracking system" used to coordinate flight crew arrangements, which collapsed and was unable to effectively handle the problems caused by the large number of flight changes.

Passengers wait for flight information at Chicago International Airport on July 19. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yan Liang

The chaos prompted U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to intervene, and he spoke with Bastian on the 21st to remind him of Delta's responsibilities to passengers, including the need to compensate passengers whose scheduled flights were canceled but did not accept the rebooking.

United Airlines canceled 262 flights on the 21st, equivalent to 9% of the scheduled flights for the day, and canceled about 400 flights the day before.

Due to an error in the upgrade program of the "Crowdstrike" security software equipped with Microsoft Windows system, related systems have been down in many places around the world since the evening of the 18th. Microsoft said on the 20th that about 8.5 million Windows system devices were affected. "Crowdstrike" company said on the 21st that a considerable number of these devices have resumed normal operation.

Although the software error that caused the downtime was quickly fixed, professionals estimate that it will still take a long time to smooth out the impact of this error on various industries. (Shen Min)