Delta Air Lines grounds departing flights amid computer outage

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines waed travelers to expect "large-scale cancellations" of flights Monday, because of a computer problem that began in the early moing hours. The problem affected the self-service check-in kiosks at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, forcing passengers to check in at Delta counters. Shortly before 7 a.m. Monday, those kiosks began working again at the Atlanta airport.

The first word of the problem came early Monday moing from Delta's Twitter account.

Lines at the check-in desks in Atlanta and other airports around the country grew long during the computer outage.

In a statement posted Monday moing on its website, Delta said, "A power outage in Atlanta, which began at approximately 2:30 a.m. ET, has impacted Delta computer systems and operations worldwide, resulting in flight delays. Large-scale cancellations are expected today. We are aware that flight status systems, including airport screens, are incorrectly showing flights on time."

Because of the outage, all Delta flights scheduled for departure were delayed. The airline said flights that were already in the air when the problem began were operating normally.

Atlanta-based Delta is the largest carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson Inteational Airport.