Another weekend of bad weather in Florida and ongoing staffing issues caused Spirit Airlines and JetBlue to cancel and delay hundreds of flights.
According to the flight tracker, FlightAware, JetBlue cancelled 151 flights on Sunday and had to delay another 507, accounting for 47% of all their flights.
While Spirit Airlines cancelled 145 flights on Sunday and delayed 269 flights, leaving travelers on spring break waiting around the airport for hours without a clear plan of how they can get back home.
Fort Lauderdale International and Orlando International airports dealt with most of the issues in Florida, as there were 130 delays (25%) in Fort Lauderdale and 155 delays (27%) in Orlando on Sunday as people were trying to leave their vacations.
Travelers directing out of Miami International still dealt with delays, but not nearly as many as other Florida airports. There were just 99 delays (13%) in Miami on Sunday.
Joanna Geraghty, president of JetBlue, sent an email to employees on Saturday, that was obtained by USA Today, after there were hundreds of delays and cancellations. She apologized to employees and customers, and promised that flight operations are the company's top priority right now, despite the news last week that JetBlue made a bid of about $3.6 billion to purchase Spirit.
"We had some big news at JetBlue this week, and while that has rightly been the focus of a lot of buzz, I want to assure you our #1 priority right now is the operation," Geraghty said. "You have been simply incredible under very difficult circumstances, and we want to thank you for all you are doing to take care of our Customers. We are letting you and our customers down, and that is not consistent with what we stand for.
"We are working around the clock to address some of the most difficult operating conditions we have ever faced as a company."
Geraghty then went on to tell USA Today that the company plans to cut back on flights for remainder of April and as well as their summer flight schedule by "at least 8% to 10%."
"Given we anticipate continued industry challenges and heavy demand into the summer, we are planning more conservatively and trying to be proactive where we can with cancellations due to disruptive weather and air traffic control events," JetBlue told Fox Business.
Despite all the travel issues in Florida, flights out of New Jersey and New York still saw the most delays in the country on Sunday. There were 193 delays (34%) from Newark Liberty International and 216 delays (31%) from John F. Kennedy International. While LaGuardia Airport had just 92 delays (17%) on Sunday.
Other locations around the country with a high number or percentage of delays on Sunday included Denver International (207 delays, 25%) and Los Angeles International (168 delays, 19%). Travelers out of Atlanta, Boston, Houston and Washington, D.C. all dealt with over 100 delays as well, while people coming from Philadelphia (51 delays) and Seattle (81 delays) didn't have to worry about delays as much as others on Sunday.
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