Thousands of Spirit Airlines customers were left stranded on Sunday and Monday after the budget air carrier canceled hundreds of flights, according to reports.
The Florida-based airline nixed 165 flights on Sunday and delayed another 341, according to FlightAware.com. Another 277 flights had been canceled as of 5:30 p.m. on Monday — 36 percent of scheduled Spirit trips, the site said.
Hundreds more flights have been delayed, according to reports. Photos on social media from across the country showed would-be flyers waiting in long lines to retrieve their luggage.
“It looked like a hurricane shelter,” passenger Rebecca Osborn, who was at Orlando International Airport, told USA Today.
An airline rep blamed the chaos on “a series of weather and operational challenges.”
“We needed to make proactive cancellations to some flights across the network, but the majority of flights are still scheduled as planned,” said airline spokesman, Erik Hofmeyer.
“There were people everywhere: little kids, old people,” Osborn’s boyfriend Eddie Gordon said. “They never came out and gave any type of explanation or offered anything… First, they said it was weather, then they said we don’t have enough staff.”
Gordon and Osbourne told USA Today they waited in line for a refund from midnight to 9:30 a.m. on Monday, after their flight was scheduled to depart Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
Airlines have struggled to maintain staffing levels after COVID-19 decimated profits.
Spirit was far from the only airline to struggle on Sunday and Monday. American Airlines had canceled 455 flights, or 15 percent of scheduled trips, as of 5:30 p.m. on Monday, FlightAware.com said.
