PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The cancellations continue for Spirit Airlines, which is trying to get a handle on staffing issues and other problems that have led to major disruptions and a lot of frustrated travelers in Philadelphia and around the country.
Spirit was expected to cancel about half of its flights on Friday after canceling 55% of its flights on Thursday, according to the aviation database FlightAware. Ten flights out of Philadelphia were canceled Thursday night through Friday.
The Spirit check-in line at Philadelphia International Airport was not as long Friday morning as it had been earlier in the week. But there were still some people who arrived only to find out that their flight was given the axe.
“It’s been horrible. They act like it’s not a big deal. Gave me a $40 voucher,” Anthony Rocco said. He has had several flights to Houston canceled this week. Adding to the frustration, he had had to go back and forth from Atlantic City.
“Came all the way here and got stuck. Had to sleep in the train station because I rented too many hotels because it’s been five days going on now,” Rocco said.
For others who were in line, there was a feeling that they got lucky.
“We were feeling stressed out,” said bride-to-be Sophia who was going to Miami for her Bachelorette Party weekend. “We were gonna cancel with Spirit but [the flight] was still there. They didn’t cancel, so we didn’t.”
In an interview with ABC News, Spirit CEO Ted Christie said if the company, “we’re not built to deal with this level of disruption.” He said when they started to cancel flights last week, many crew members were dislocated throughout their system. He said they have made progress, and cancellations are decreasing but the expectation is they will continue through the middle of next week.
The airline and the union representing Spirit pilots say rumors of a pilot strike were not true.