A weekend of travel headaches trickled into Tuesday as Spirit Airlines canceled more than half of its flights leaving passengers stranded around the country.
“It’s really stressful being here,” said Brayan Quito.
Quito and his family spent hours on the floor near the ticket counter at DFW trying to make new arrangements after their flight to Orlando was canceled.
“I got an email, said I had to stay for like three more days and that’s just… it’s crazy because we don’t have a lot of money to stay in a hotel like that,” said Quito.
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His was one of more than 400 cancellations Tuesday by the airline.
A spokesperson said in a statement:
“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. We needed to make proactive cancellations to some flights across the network, but the majority of flights are still scheduled as planned.
We understand how frustrating it is for our Guests when plans change unexpectedly, and we're working to find solutions. We ask Guests to actively monitor their emails and flight status before heading to the airport.
As a team, we strive every day to get our Guests where they need to go on time. Our focus will continue to be on taking care of our Guests.”
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American Airlines canceled about 350 flights, still pointing to Sunday’s storms.
The Associated Press reported a company log shows many were due in part to a lack of pilots.
With a surge in summer travel that left thousands waiting in long lines with some choosing to purchase last-minute tickets on different carriers.
“They were expensive but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do on short notice,” said Aakeima Wright after her connection through DFW via Spirit was canceled.
Others, like Precious Balogua and her mother, chose to simply head home and try again tomorrow.
“We’ve been planning this trip for a while and we have to schedule it to a time where she didn’t have to work, so it kind of feels horrible to lose a day of it considering how much time we spent planning it,” said Balogua.
U.S. air travel has recovered to about 80% of where it was before the pandemic, but the airlines have struggled to ramp back up and meet surging demand.
