Spirit Airlines cancelled half its flights Wednesday in an attempt to "reboot" its operations following a series of disruptions that began over the weekend. This was due to bad weather, staff shortages, and technological problems.Spirit has cancelled more than 1000 flights since Sunday, and many more were delayed.Customers furious about cancellations and difficulties reaching customer service representatives complained via social media. Many people tweeted photos of travelers lying on the ground near airport gates and long lines.Spirit's executives, who have been working in recent years to improve reliability and customer service, are facing a lot of challenges.Spirit stated that disruptions were caused by the surge of summer travel which recovered faster from the coronavirus pandemic than airline executives anticipated. According to Spirit, fuller flights means that there are fewer options for guests to rebook.Spirit released a statement saying that the last three days had been extremely difficult for Team Members and Guests. She also expressed deep regret.According to FlightAware, more than 340 flights were cancelled Wednesday. This is half of the daily schedule.Airlines may cancel large numbers of flights in order to prevent further disruptions or get their employees and planes to the right place to resume flight operations.Spirit stated that it expected cancellations to "progressively fall" over the coming days.American Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights this week after severe weather at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (the largest hub) caused by high winds, lightning, hail and severe weather.American's operations stabilized on Wednesday with approximately 100 cancellations. This is a decrease of 12% from Tuesday's 12%.Spirit claimed it would learn from this meltdown.It released a statement saying that it had taken a deep look at the problems and identified improvement opportunities that would help them operate a more resilient network, better serve their guests and make their lives easier.Spirit was unable to calibrate on Wednesday due to thunderstorms. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Spirit's main base at Fort Lauderdale, Florida was delayed by taxi and gate delays for over an hour.
