On Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ted Christie confirmed that the airline’s plan to recover from its current operational disruption is working. Spirit’s cancellation rate improved Thursday and it remained on track to improve further. While Spirit never wants to cancel flights and inconvenience its Guests, Christie called the improvement a step in the right direction. Christie said he expects Spirit’s cancellation rate to continue to improve over the weekend, resuming normal operations by the middle of next week.
Christie went on to explain that recent cancellations stem from a month’s worth of tough operating conditions in July. What started with weather and its associated delays led to more and more crew members getting dislocated and being unable to fly their assigned trips. Ultimately, the number of crews facing those issues outpaced the crew scheduling department’s capacity for getting them back in place.
“Our primary objective right now is taking care of our Guests and Team Members and getting our operation back to where we want it to be,” Christie said. “To our Guests, I am truly sorry. We’ve spent years investing in the reliable, on-time experience you’ve come to expect with Spirit, and this week we fell short. We’re going to do everything we can to earn back your loyalty.”
Spirit continues to take care of Guests impacted by cancellations using a combination of options, including reaccommodations, flight credits, refunds, hotel vouchers and meal vouchers.