Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) CEO, Ed Bastian, has publicly criticized Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) platform for its "fragility," while lauding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) for its stability. This statement comes following a faulty update in mid-July that caused widespread internet disruption.
What Happened: A faulty update from CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD) led to significant issues for many companies, including airlines such as Delta, American Airlines, and United. These airlines were forced to ground flights until their systems were restored.
During an interview on CNBC, Bastian expressed his dissatisfaction with Microsoft and lauded Apple's stability. He stated, "My sense is [Microsoft is] probably the most fragile platform within that space... When was the last time you heard about a big outage at Apple?"
Delta is reportedly planning to sue Microsoft and security firm CrowdStrike to recover an alleged $500 million profit loss due to the technical issues.
The airline has integrated Apple products into various parts of its business, including the use of Apple's business chat for customer service and providing pilots with a 5G-equipped iPad Pro.
Why It Matters: This incident follows a series of events that began with a global IT outage attributed to a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, impacting systems running on Microsoft's Windows operating system and cloud services. The outage affected businesses worldwide, including airlines, banks, and media.
Microsoft later explained that due to a prior agreement with the European Commission, it is unable to adopt the same security measures as Apple.
Delta Air Lines faced a $500M financial hit due to the system failure, triggering a federal investigation into the airline's response. The airline is now seeking damages from Microsoft and CrowdStrike.