Delta said that its chief operating officer, Michael
Spanos, will depart the company Aug. 31 to take a position at another
company.
Spanos joined Delta a little more than a year ago.
Previously, he was CEO of Six Flags and held multiple senior-level roles
at PepsiCo. A statement from Delta announcing his hiring in June 2023
said that his experience and perspective "would enhance and accelerate
the integration across our operational, customer experience and
technology teams."
Spanos' departure follows an operational meltdown at Delta that was triggered by the CrowdStrike
software malfunction in mid-July. The
airline was disproportionately hit within the aviation industry, and the
fallout from the CrowdStrike outages will cost it about $500 million.
But
the airline did not tie the CrowdStrike outages to Spanos' departure.
In a memo to employees, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said that Spanos had been
considering opportunities outside of Delta earlier this summer. And in a Wall Street Journal report on Spanos' departure, the publication quoted an earlier interview with Bastian where he said that Spanos "wasn't the one we were
relying on to make the decisions" during the CrowdStrike outages.
Delta
is not immediately planning to replace Spanos. Instead, chief customer
experience officer Allison Ausband and chief of operations John
Laughter, who both reported to Spanos, will now report to Bastian.