Delta CEO, in Paris for the Olympics, says outage-related cancellations should end Thursday

abcnews.go.com:

The chief executive of Delta Air Lines expects flight cancellations and delays that resulted from a global technology breakdown last week to be resolved by Thursday

Delta Air Lines canceled significantly fewer flights Wednesday, and the airline's chief executive said cancellations and delays stemming from a global technology breakdown should end by Thursday.

The airline issued a message from Ed Bastian to customers while the CEO was in Paris to attend the Summer Olympics.

In the message, Bastian apologized to travelers who had their plans upended. Delta has canceled more than 6,500 flights — far more than any other airline — since key systems were crippled by the technology outage.

“While our initial efforts to stabilize the operations were difficult and frustratingly slow and complex, we have made good progress this week and the worst impacts of the CrowdStrike-caused outage are clearly behind us,” Bastian said.

CrowdStrike is the cybersecurity company whose faulty software update sent to computers running on Microsoft Windows led to grounded flights and disrupted banks, hospitals and retailers starting early Friday.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating why Delta failed to recover as quickly as other airlines. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday that the department would also examine Delta’s customer service, including “unacceptable” lines for assistance and reports that unaccompanied minors were stranded at airports.

Buttigieg said the department had received more than 3,000 complaints about Delta since the outage started.

By midday Wednesday, Delta had canceled about 50 flights, not counting those on its Delta Connection regional affiliates, according to tracking service