On Monday, Spirit Airlines and American canceled more than 800 flights and delayed over 1000 flights. The airlines said that the flights didn’t take off due to weather and other factors. Passenger were left stranded at several airports and took to social media to vent their ire. This is the latest disruption this summer as Americans are traveling in unprecedented numbers after staying cooped up last summer due to the pandemic.

Spirit Airlines cancels hundreds of more flights on Friday August 6th,2021 and the day before, Thursday, 450 flights were cancelled which is more than half of its schedule.

A Spirit Airlines spokesperson told ABC News that they canceled 313 flights which amounts to about 40 percent of their daily operations. This gave the company “breathing room” to continue with flight operations that had been delayed or canceled due to

• weather
• shortage of staff
• crews reaching legal hour limits that they are allowed to fly.

In a statement Spirit said that they were working around the clock to get back on track. It said that they faced both weather and operational challenges but most of their flights were on schedule.

The Florida base airlines canceled flights in several cities including

• Miami
• Orlando
• Fort Lauderdale
• San Juan.

On Monday, American Airlines canceled 529 flights amounting to almost 20 percent of its daily flights. The airlines told ABC News that it was still recovering from inclement weather in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. A spokesperson said that they had to divert at least 80 flights other airports due to severe thunderstorms. The spokesperson also said that it was repositioning planes and crews so that it could improve its operations.

Tired, weary, and frustrated passengers vented on social media about the shortfalls of the budget Spirit airlines. They posted about

• long queues
• inadequate staff at counters
• heat
• hunger
• thirst
• missing luggage
• lack of basic amenities for young children and more.

An Orlando airport spokeswoman told the Sun Sentinel that she thought that the delays and cancellations were happening due to a variety of factors including

• inclement weather with afternoon storms and lightning
• reduced airline staff due to COVID-19
• a huge spike in travel.

Carolyn Fennel, the spokesperson, also described it as “a perfect storm.”

Image Alan Wilson