FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA. – At least 303 Spirit Airlines flights are canceled as the travel nightmare moves into its fourth day on Wednesday.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is just one of many across the country dealing with stranded passengers.
A ticket and gate agent for Spirit told Local 10 News that there is a similar scene in Newark.
“We don’t know if there is a shortage of staff,” she said. “Nobody contacts us. All we hear is that we are working as hard as possible to solve the problem, but nothing is being done. We are not told anything. “
Tuesday’s cellphone video submitted by viewers showed a messy scene where areas of the airport were crowded with luggage and customers – even young children – slept on the floor.
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Miramar-based Spirit Airlines released a new statement stating, “Our hearts go out to each of our guests affected by a cancellation. We have people who work for you 24 hours a day. For our team members, if possible, we provide additional help at the airports and inform them when the situation develops. “
Spirit canceled more than half of its schedule on Tuesday. By early evening, Spirit had canceled more than 400 flights, or nearly 60% of its flight schedule, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Almost 100 other flights were delayed.
At least part of the blame appeared to be a technology failure. A person familiar with the situation said Spirit experienced an outage Tuesday morning that affected crew planning and prevented the airline’s staff from rescheduling crews to fill in gaps. The person who was not allowed to speak publicly said crews were stranded in many locations across the country and unable to get on assigned flights.
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The travel problems aren’t just spirit. Hundreds of American Airlines flights have also been canceled as the airline struggled to recover from the weekend storms at its Texas home and stranded thousands of passengers at the height of the summer travel season.
American Airlines had already canceled nearly 350 flights. It’s much bigger than Spirit, so those flights made up 11% of the flight plan – still an unusually high rate.
According to the company register, around three quarters of American cancellations appeared to be at least partially due to a lack of pilots. American denied there was a lack of pilots. Spokeswoman Whitney Zastrow said in a statement that Tuesday’s cancellations were largely related to Sunday’s storm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She said the staff were on duty around the clock to take care of customers.
The disruptions at Spirit and American are just the latest examples of airlines dealing with a surge in travel this summer. Airlines have thousands fewer employees than they did before the pandemic, but U.S. air traffic has recovered to about 80% from 2019 levels.
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A spokesman for Spirit said the low-cost airline was proactively canceling some flights – dropping them before most passengers headed to the airport – in order to “roll back” operations.
Broward County’s aviation division has announced that it has been distributing water and snacks to those affected by these flight disruptions at Fort Lauderdale Airport.
Copyright 2021 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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