Canceled flights hit travelers

Spirit, American cite bad weather

Spirit Airlines and American Airlines canceled hundreds of flights Tuesday after several days of disruptions, frustrating passengers across the U.S.

By midafternoon, Spirit had scrapped more than half its scheduled flights for the day, according to FlightAware, an aviation data firm. The airline canceled more than 40% of its flights Monday and 19% Sunday. Spirit attributed the disruptions to “a series of weather and operational challenges.”

American had canceled about 300 flights by the middle of the afternoon Tuesday, about 10% of Tuesday’s scheduled trips. The airline canceled about 18% of its flights Monday and 9% the day before. American pinned the blame on a weekend storm that hit Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, its large hub airport.

“A prolonged severe weather event in Dallas/ Fort Worth on Sunday night into Monday morning brought sustained heavy rain, strong winds, lightning, microbursts and hail to our largest hub,” Curtis Blessing, an American spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday. “The nine-hour weather event resulted in flight delays, cancellations and nearly 100 di

versions. Our team members are working around the clock to care for our customers.”

A Spirit spokesman said the airline was proactively canceling some flights — dropping them before most passengers drive to the airport — to “reset” the operation.

“We’re working around the clock to mitigate the travel disruptions caused by overlapping operational challenges including weather, system outages and staffing shortages in some areas of the operation,” spokesman Erik Hofmeyer said. “We’re working to provide refunds for cancellations and, when possible, to re-accommodate our guests” on other flights.

Southwest canceled about 3% of its flights Tuesday, and other large U.S. airlines had even fewer cancellations, according to FlightAware.

The numbers don’t count flights on smaller planes that are branded as American Eagle, United Express or Delta Connection.

Before the spate of disruptions, it had been a relatively good stretch for the two airlines. Only about 2% of American’s flights and about 1% of Spirit’s flights were canceled last month, according to FlightAware.

Both airlines had more cancellations as a share of overall flights in July 2019, according to Transportation Department data.

Most major airlines this summer have experienced widespread delays of at least 15 minutes, however. On a few occasions, bad weather has combined with pandemic-related staffing shortages to cause extended disruptions. American said that some employees hit the maximum hours they could work in one stretch because of the weather delays this week. The airline said it expected its operations to improve starting Tuesday.

The union representing American’s pilots accused the airline’s management of poor planning and not having enough employees.

“It’s pretty simple. They don’t have enough pilots, and they don’t have modern scheduling practices to do more with what they have,” said union spokesman Dennis Tajer.

He said that bad weather “hits every airline, but American is the last to recover. This has to change.”

The industry has experienced a relatively strong summer rebound, as people emboldened by widespread vaccinations resumed traveling again.

More than 2.2 million people were screened at federal airport security checkpoints Sunday, the most since early March 2020, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Still, air travel remains about 20% below 2019 levels.