Aug 23 (Reuters) - Delta Air's chief operating

officer, Mike Spanos, will leave the airline next month to take

on a role at another company, CEO Ed Bastian said in a memo to

employees on Friday.

Spanos had approached him earlier this summer to

communicate that he was considering other opportunities, Bastian

said.

The exit of Delta's operations chief comes weeks after

the airline

canceled

thousands of flights owing to a global cyber outage.

Spanos joined the legacy carrier last year and had

previously worked as the CEO of amusement park chain Six Flags

, before stepping down in 2021.

He had also spent more than 25 years in a number of

leadership roles at PepsiCo ( PEP ) and the Pepsi Bottling

Group.

Delta currently does not plan to appoint someone to

replace Spanos, the memo showed.