August 07, 2021
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Spirit Airlines said the mass flight cancellations the airline has been experiencing over the past week are expected to continue into early next week.
After a week of mass-cancelations across the country, Spirit Airlines announced that travelers can expect the carrier to continue rescheduling and canceling flights into early next week.
At the Philadelphia International Airport, 71% of Spirit Airlines flights have been canceled so far this month.
From Aug. 1-5, Spirit had 58 scheduled departures and 41 of them did not depart, Heather Redfern, the spokesperson for Philadelp[hia International Airport, told PhillyVoice. As of 2 p.m. Friday, the airline had canceled seven of its 13 scheduled flights.
Nationally, Spirit Airlines canceled more than 1,700 flights last week, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country.
Airline officials said a culmination of weather issues, staffing shortages and "overlapping operational issues," led to the nation-wide flight cancellations last week, CNN reported.
"We're continuing with our way forward to fly as much as we can while also make progress on repairing our operation and repositioning our crews," Spirit head of communications Erik Hofmeyer told CNN in a statement. "We still have work to do, but we are now in the position to see reductions in cancellations in the days to come."
The airline canceled nearly 300 flights as of midday Friday — more than a third of its overall flights. It canceled more than half its flights Thursday.
Spirit Airline's website includes a travel advisory warning of the cancellations, asking customers to check their flight status before going to the airport.
We are experiencing operational challenges in some areas of our network. Before going to the airport, check your email and current flight status here: https://t.co/yuPJDPxeNu. The fastest way to receive assistance is to visit our webchat: https://t.co/QnlZcUCMtk. pic.twitter.com/E176h8KHjN
— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) August 2, 2021
There are 119 Spirit Airlines departures scheduled from the Philadelphia International Airport next week.
"We advise all passengers to check with the airline frequently regarding the status of their flights," Redfern said.
CEO Ted Christie said the impacted passengers have been given accommodations and vouchers.
"We believe we've taken care of our guests at this point, and we think we're caught up there. We've either gotten them reaccommodated on Spirit or another airline or we've put them into a hotel or gotten them where they needed to be," Christie said to ABC News.
Travelers are entitled a cash refund, per federal law, but many airlines will try to give passengers a travel voucher or something else in place of that refund, Willis Orlando, a member operations specialist with Scott's Cheap Flights, told 6ABC.
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