Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian says that a recent global cybersecurity software outage could end up costing the company as much as $500,000 in lost revenue. 

The outage hit on July 19, when a glitch in a software update for CrowdStrike's cybersecurity platform crashed Microsoft Windows systems across the globe. The ensuing outage forced airlines to ground thousands of flights, while temporarily shutting down a handful of major ports, and disrupting banks, hospitals and television networks. Although Delta was only one of many airlines affected by the incident, it appeared to have been hit the hardest, after needing five days to get its crew tracking systems back online, despite other airlines getting their own systems back up within hours. 

Read More: Global IT Collapse Puts Cyber Firm CrowdStrike in Spotlight

Bastian told CNBC on July 31 that the financial losses for Delta were related to a loss in revenue from the tens of millions of dollars per day that were needed to rebook and accommodate roughly 500,000 stranded travelers, with Delta canceling around 30% of its flights in the five days that followed the initial system crash. Bastian was also critical of CrowdStrike for pushing the faulty update in the first place. 

Meanwhile, Delta Cargo — the company's air freight arm — reported a 16% year-over-year increase in total revenues for the second quarter of 2024, calling the uptick "a significant improvement from prior trends." That being so, those numbers don't include the potential fallout from the CrowdStrike crash, with supply chain consulting firm Xeneta previously warning that the air freight industry could take weeks to fully recover.