Spirit Airlines Slammed by Day Two of Cancellations and Delays as ‘Perfect Storm’ Bites

Hundreds of travelers in Florida and beyond were stranded on Monday after Spirit Airlines cancelled over 250 flights nationwide.

Spirit spokesman Erik Hofmeyer blamed cancellations and delays on weather and “other operational challenges.” The airline did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport reported 74 flight cancellations Monday, 68 of which were from Spirit Airlines, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.com. On Sunday, Spirit accounted for 34 of 37 cancellations at the airport.

Crowds of frustrated travelers camped out on the floor near the Spirit terminal Monday afternoon.

Some families played card games and rested on the floor to pass the time. Others angrily confronted Spirit employees about the ongoing delays and cancellations.

Marissa Kingham has spent the past two days unsuccessfully trying to get her 15-year-old son back home from Philadelphia. After visiting family friends, he was supposed fly back to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday night, but was unable to after the cancellations.

She rescheduled his flight for Monday night, but with that being Spirit’s last flight back to Fort Lauderdale, she’s worried more cancellations could potentially leave the 15-year-old stranded by himself at airport over 1,000 miles away.

“It’s just scary because they’ve already cancelled so many today,” Kingham said. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do at this point. Do I hold out hope that Spirit’s going to keep flying? I don’t know.”

Orlando International Airport saw a similar scene; 56 of the airport’s 62 cancellations Monday were Spirit flights. On Sunday, they made up 36 out of 60 cancellations; more than any other airline.

“I think the question of why it’s happening is a combination of weather with afternoon storms and lightning; airline staffs are reduced by COVID not just here but across the nation and you’ve got a huge spike in travel,” said Carolyn Fennell, Orlando airport spokeswoman. “It’s all of that, a perfect storm.”

People also reported hours-long delays for Spirit flights. Travelers said they had been at the airport for many hours as Spirit employees told them flights were delayed; 17 hours in one case. Some travelers reported these delays were affecting flights in and out of airports in other states as well.

In Fort Lauderdale, Spirit had 20 flights delayed out of the airport’s 63 total delays around noon.

After spending the weekend in Miami, James Rodriguez, 21, his brother and two cousins were heading home to Atlanta when their Spirit flight was canceled.

They arrived at the airport around 7 a.m. Monday for their 9 a.m. flight to discover the flight was no longer taking off. While the airline offered to reschedule the flight for Aug. 4, they ultimately decided to rent a car and drive home to Atlanta.

At around 1:30 p.m., the group sat away from the crowds eating free food vouchers offered by the airline. Rodriguez’s main takeaway? “Don’t fly Spirit, spend the extra $50 on American Airlines.”

Cancellations and delays had people airing frustration and exhaustion on social media.

“Update, been here in line almost 7 hrs. I’m tired, hungry, hot and I’m finally close to the front. @SpiritAirlines No comment on what’s going,” Aysha Becerra tweeted.

“@SpiritAirlines had the flight from fll>dtw Spirit rebooked for me canceled yesterday. The standby flight we were supposed to be on was also canceled. Got a hotel last night after the second cancelled flight, 30+ hours on the floor was long enough. We want to go home,” another Twitter user tweeted.

A spokeswoman for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport referred questions about the cancellations to the airline.

“We’re working around the clock to get back on track in the wake of some travel disruptions over the weekend due to a series of weather and operational challenges,” Field Sutton, a Spirit spokesman, told the Orlando Sentinel.

“We needed to make proactive cancellations to some flights across the network, but the majority of flights are still scheduled as planned,” Sutton said.

Orlando Sentinel staff writer Kevin Spear contributed to this report.

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