Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Aviation Administration implements ground stops for numerous reasons like; regulating of air traffic flow capacity to the airports at a time when the demand expected is more than the number of aircrafts accepted to land, for a short period (Alderighi and Gaggero, 2018). This action temporarily stops traffic, giving room for the putting in place of more long-lasting solutions such as Ground Delay Program. Planes that are ready for departure are therefore held at the airports during the Ground Stops period in the airports where they are expected to land.

There was an incident of Ground Stop affected by the Delta Airlines in August 2016. The Ground Stop was due to an electrical problem that occurred in their Atlanta headquarters, forcing the airline to hold back hundreds of planes all over the United States. Six hours passed before the Ground Stop was put to a stop, so many flights were cancelled, causing a huge number of travellers from travelling to their various destinations (Gupta, 2017). It was later reported that the incidence was caused by failed switchgear. Replacing it caused the airline quite a fortune, and it took a while before the whole airline schedule could go back to how it used to be.

The ticket reservation sector of the Delta Airlines was the most affected, several other airlines’ ability to deliver were on the line because of the technical hitch at the Delta Airline (Gupta, 2017) . Close to a month earlier, another prominent airline had to effect the cancellation of over 1000 flights and shortly after came the issue with the Delta Airline that involved something that had not been reported to be faulty for over 20 years. Customers well acquainted to the airline have since wanted a reassurance that little to none of such issues will be expected in the future, because being the most important group of stakeholders; they lost money and time during the Ground Stop. The second group of stakeholders to be affected was investors. They had to go onboard and decide on how to keep track of the whole operating system in the airport so as to prevent future losses. They also had to refund money equal to the cancelled tickets, which not only was a loss to the airline but even the recovery period of such amount took a little longer.

1st Press Release; August 2016

Speaking on behalf of the Delta Airlines management, as the C.EO, i would like to inform everyone that the cause of the problem that led to the abrupt Ground Stop has been identified and together with our technical team we are working around the clock to get a permanent solution. I would like to urge our esteemed customers to bear with us through these times. We are sorry for greatly inconveniencing you because we pride in serving you. Sorry once more, and thank you for trusting in us, Delta.

2nd Press Conference; January 2017

To my fellow citizens of this beautiful county, on behalf of the Delta Airline fraternity, I take this moment to say sorry because of any problems caused by the sudden system outage. This type of sudden disruption is not acceptable to the Delta who prides itself on reliability and customer service. Thank you.