Delta Airlines is losing one of its key executives at a time when the airliner is struggling to recover from July’s global IT outage. In a memo sent on Friday, Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian informed the staff that chief operating officer Mike Spanos will leave the company at the end of August.
Bastian said in the note that Spanos approached him and expressed his intentions to explore “other opportunities.” Despite being the one initiating his exit, Spanos, who joined Delta in 2023, will receive severance benefits, including 18 months of base salary, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Delta won’t name a new COO after Spanos departs the company. Instead, two executives who worked under him – John Laughter, chief of operations, and Allison Ausband, chief customer experience officer – will report directly to Bastian moving forward.
Spanos came to Delta as a veteran executive but one without any prior experience in the aviation industry. He previously served as the CEO of amusement park corporation Six Flags Entertainment and had an executive role at food and beverage giant PepsiCo.
Spanos’ departure comes just a month after Delta faced huge issues due to a global IT outage caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The outage caused the airliner to cancel an estimated 7,000 flights, affecting millions of passengers. According to Delta, the incident has caused them to lose $500 million.