The COO of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is leaving the company next month to take another job after just a year with the company.
Outgoing manager Mike Spanos is set to move to another company in September, Delta CEO Ed Bastian recently said in a memo to employees.
“Since joining Delta, Mike has worked hard with our frontline teams, always putting safety first,” said Bastian.
“He embodied our philosophy of servant leadership and cultivated strong connections with the people of Delta through his humble and compassionate leadership style.”
Spanos’ departure came just weeks after Delta struggled to recover from the outage that led to mass flight cancellations.
The fiasco led to a federal investigation into the company by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is looking into why Delta’s recovery took so long.
Luggage moves along the baggage claim belts at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, as Delta Air Lines still struggles to recover from last week’s outages. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
In addition, a class action lawsuit has been filed by affected passengers who claim to have been affected by travel difficulties. The lawsuit alleges that the airline refused to provide passengers with requested refunds.
Due to the fallout from the cancellations, Delta threatened to sue CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity technology company that blames it for cancellations that cost the Atlanta-based airline half a billion dollars.
Hundreds of unclaimed bags fill the aisle between the baggage claim carousels in the South Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, as Delta Air Lines tries to recover from last Friday’s global technology outage. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Despite the company’s recent difficulties, Bastian claims in his memo that Spanos’ desire to leave the company preceded the events in July.
The company currently has no plans to replace Spanos. The two executives under the COO, John Laughter and Allison Ausband, will now report to Bastian.
