Thousands stranded as Delta hit by glitch – and Trump

Thousands of domestic travelers were stranded Monday and Delta Air Lines took a social media hit from President Trump after a computer glitch forced cancellation of at least 280 flights.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said 170 flights were canceled late Sunday and at least 110 were canceled Monday. More could be canceled, he warned, urging customers expecting to fly Monday to check their flight status at delta.com.

Bastian said the airline's "essential IT systems" crashed at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The glitch was corrected a few hours later and all systems were back to normal shortly after midnight, he said.

 “I want to apologize to all of our customers who have been impacted by this frustrating situation,” Bastian said. “This type of disruption is not acceptable to the Delta family, which prides itself on reliability and customer service. I also want to thank our employees who are working tirelessly to accommodate our customers.”

Delta issued a change fee waiver for rebooking by Feb. 3. Unaccompanied minors will not be accepted for flights through noon ET Monday, the airline said.

The glitch did not go unnoticed by Trump, who blamed the airline and protesters demonstrating against his controversial executive order on immigrant travelers for congestion at airports Sunday.

Trump's tweets: "Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,.....protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!"

The glitch came a week after United Airlines grounded domestic flights for more than two hours because of a computer outage.

In August, Delta blamed a fire at its command center for computer problems that forced cancellation of more than 2,300 flights over several days. That outage cost $100 million in revenue, the airline said.

Delta, the nation's second-largest airline, is based in Atlanta and its largest hub is Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The airline and its affiliates operate more than 5,000 flights daily.