A Spirit Airlines plane taxis to a runway at Orlando International Airport Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
Spirit Airlines canceled about 100 flights on Friday after pulling some planes out of service for inspections, and the airline expects the disruptions to last several days.
Spirit did not describe the nature of the inspections and did not respond when asked for further information.
By Friday afternoon, Spirit had canceled 11% of its schedule for the day, easily the highest percentage of scrubbed flights among leading U.S. carriers, according to tracking service FlightAware.
“We’ve cancelled a portion of our scheduled flights to perform a necessary inspection of a small section of 25 of our aircraft,” Spirit said in a statement. “The impact to our network is expected to last several days as we complete the inspections and work to return to normal operations.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of Spirit's decision to pull the planes from service for a “mandatory maintenance inspection." The FAA did not describe the inspections either, but said it "will ensure that the matter is addressed before the airplanes are returned to service.”
Spirit had 198 planes as of June 30, all of them variants of the Airbus A320 family, according to a company regulatory filing.
The airline told customers to check the status of their flight before going to the airport.
About half of the Spirit cancellations were at Florida’s Orlando International Airport, where Spirit is the second-largest carrier.
Spirit, which is based in Miramar, Florida, has canceled more than 3,600 flights this year, or 1.5% of its schedule. That is lower than the 2% cancellation rate at Frontier Airlines, a similar budget carrier, and rates for JetBlue Airways and United Airlines.
Jack Daniels was at the U.S. Supreme Court today. The whiskey-makers argued that a dog toy company violated federal trademark law with a product that parodies the distiller's iconic bottle. The toy is the Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker toy by VIP products. The first amendment case pits the rights of a famous trademark holder against parody products. Jack Daniel says the toy damages its reputation, especially the references to dog poop.
Alcohol brand White Claw is moving into spirits amid an industrywide shift away from hard seltzers. The spiked seltzer brand announced a new line of regular and flavored White Claw premium vodkas. The bottles are available in select markets across North America and come in an unflavored option as well as pineapple mango and black cherry white Claw has dominated the Heart Seltzer market for years. Now bringing the category into the mainstream as more consumers sought those low calorie alcohol drinks.
Stocks are holding relatively steady Wednesday as Wall Street bides its time until the Federal Reserve’s announcement in the afternoon about whether it will tighten the screws further on the economy.
Meme stocks are rising before the opening bell Wednesday after GameStop, one of the most heavily traded off-brand stocks during the pandemic, posted a surprise profit for the fourth quarter.
The rising cost of groceries is pushing more consumers to use Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services for necessities such as groceries, according to new data from Adobe Analytics.
