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.
Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Monday as the U.S. moved to close its embassy in Ukraine amid heightened geopolitical tensions over the thousands of Russian troops that have been amassing on the border.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
As Super Bowl LVI shapes up to be the biggest gambling event in sports history, restaurants and bars are looking to get in on the rapidly growing world of legalized sports betting.
A rocket startup's big launch debut at Florida's Cape Canaveral has ended with all four mini-satellites destroyed.
SpaceX's Elon Musk says the first orbital flight of his towering Starship could come in another month or two.
Stocks tumbled again Friday, and this time bond yields joined in the swoon as worries about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine piled onto Wall Street’s already heavy list of concerns about inflation and interest rates.
The truck blockade at the U.S. border by Canadians protesting the country’s COVID-19 restrictions is tightening the screws on the auto industry, forcing Ford, Toyota and General Motors to shut down plants or otherwise curtail production.
Inflation was hotter than expected in January, but the debate over what this means for the economy is getting even hotter as markets brace for a flurry of Fed rate hikes in 2022.
Anthony and Janique Edwards app EatOkra, one of the top 15 on Apple's App Store in 2021, is hoping to elevate Black-owned restaurants like Brooklyn's Kokomo. Cheddar's Michelle Castillo reports.
As we celebrate Black History Month, Cheddar is highlighting prominent Black Americans carving their own history. now. Today we feature Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens.
