Spirit flight cancellations continue in Pittsburgh, nationwide
Flights to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Myrtle Beach and Cancun were among the local cancellations by Spirit Airlines.
Flights to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Myrtle Beach and Cancun were among the local cancellations by Spirit Airlines.
Flights to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Myrtle Beach and Cancun were among the local cancellations by Spirit Airlines.
Spirit Airlines continued to cancel hundreds of flights nationwide Wednesday. (Watch the report in the video player above.)
According to the FlightAware online tracker, as of 9 a.m., Spirit had canceled 46% of its flights.
At Pittsburgh International Airport, flights were canceled to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Myrtle Beach. Arrivals from those locations, as well as Tampa, were also canceled.
John Kail said he has a family vacation to Florida scheduled for next week, but Wednesday was his last day to cancel a hotel and rental car, so he took time out of his day and went to the airport to speak face-to-face with an agent.
"The guy behind the counter -- I mean, they do their best. They don't have the answers. They don't really know what’s going on," Kail said.
At Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, there were canceled flights to Orlando and Myrtle Beach.
Melissa Mitchell and her husband found out their flight was canceled after they arrived at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport Tuesday morning. The couple had driven an hour and half from Duncansville to begin a vacation to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
"I have to reschedule the car and hotel again and it shortens our time away," Mitchell said. "It's a mess."
The couple was rebooked on a flight Wednesday, but was warned it wasn't guaranteed to happen.
"After that there is really no sense in going," Mitchell said. "It will be months of work for nothing."
Pittsburgh's Action News 4 spoke with travelers that have been waiting since Sunday for a flight.
Brenda Smith and 20 of her family members were supposed to leave on a trip to the beach in Florida where they are hoping to spread her father's ashes.
"We can't get our money back on our house or our rental car," Smith said. "I'm just frustrated. There's no other option unless you want to wait for another flight that could also get canceled. They don't even have rental cars for us and we all couldn't fit for us to drive that long anyways."
Cindy Smeltzer, of Creekside, said the first two days of her mother-daughter vacation has been spent in Latrobe.
"Just one cancellation after another," she said. "We've had four flights canceled since yesterday morning, and there's no promise that tomorrow is going to happen."
Spirit has a travel advisory on its website that says it is "experiencing operational challenges in some areas of our network."
Spirit Airlines released the following statement:
"We're working around the clock to mitigate the travel disruptions caused by overlapping operational challenges including weather, system outages and staffing shortages in some areas of the operation. In responding to these challenges, Spirit has implemented some proactive cancellations again today to reset our operations. Most of our flights currently remain scheduled as planned. We understand how frustrating it is for our guests when plans change unexpectedly. We're working to provide refunds for cancellations and, when possible, to reaccommodate our guests. We have processed proactive cancellations early to give our guests as much notice as possible, and we ask that they watch for notifications and check their flight status before heading to the airport. These targeted changes are mainly focused in markets where travelers have multiple options for alternative flights.
"As a team, we strive every day to get our guests where they need to go on time. We sincerely regret the inconvenience this has caused."