Spirit, American cancel more flights Wednesday – KIRO 7 News Seattle

Spirit Airlines faces a fourth day of flight cancellations as the airline continues to be plagued by technology and staffing issues.

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By 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the Florida-based airline had canceled 304 flights, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.

Wednesday’s cancellations, which account for 45% of the company’s traffic, followed three days of chaos for travelers stranded at airports across the country.

Almost 100 other flights were delayed on Tuesday.

“We are working around the clock to alleviate the travel disruptions caused by overlapping operational challenges such as weather, system failures and staff shortages in some areas of the company,” said spokesman Erik Hofmeyer. “We are working to provide refunds for cancellations and to re-accommodate our guests when possible.”

Spirit has advised customers to check their email accounts for the status of their flights before departing for the airport.

American Airlines is also seeing cancellations with nearly 350 flights canceled by the end of Tuesday. The Associated Press reported that about three-quarters of American cancellations appeared to be due, at least in part, to a shortage of pilots, according to a company blog.

American canceled about 560 flights, or 18% of its flight schedule, on Monday and nearly 300 on Sunday, according to FlightAware.

According to the AP, the American pilots’ union accused the airline’s management of poor planning and insufficient staff.

“It’s pretty easy. They don’t have enough pilots and they don’t have modern planning practices to do more with what they have, ”said union spokesman Dennis Tajer. He said bad weather “hits every airline, but American is the last to recover. That needs to change.”

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