Spirit Airlines Inc. canceled over half its flights Tuesday as the airline continues to grapple with an operational meltdown that has thrown its operation into disarray for three consecutive days.
Spirit canceled 373 flights, or 54% of its schedule Tuesday, after canceling over 40% of its flights Monday and close to 20% on Sunday, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking site.
A Spirit spokesman cited “overlapping operational challenges” including bad weather, system outages and staffing shortages in some areas. He said the airline had proactively canceled some flights in an effort to reset its operation and was working to refund and rebook customers.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, a union that represents flight attendants at Spirit and other airlines, said the struggles were compounded by an IT outage Tuesday morning that prevented crew schedulers from being able to access their system for over an hour. Spirit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on that outage.
This summer has been difficult for airlines and passengers. Travel has surged, with the number of passengers hitting a fresh high Sunday since the start of the pandemic, but airlines and airports don’t have as much staff as they used to and have in some cases struggled to keep up and to recover when things go awry.
