Spirit and American canceled more than 800 flights during a 3rd consecutive day of delays and disruption

  • Spirit Airlines canceled another 429 flights on Tuesday, or 61% of its schedule, per FlightAware.

  • American Airlines canceled 378 flights, or 12% of its schedule that day, per FlightAware data.

  • Spirit blamed bad weather, staff shortages, and system outages for the cancellations.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Spirit Airlines canceled another 429 flights on Tuesday - most of its schedule - as bad weather and IT issues plagued the airline for a third consecutive day.

The cancellations made up 61% of Spirit's Tuesday schedule, with a futher 18% delayed, according to flight data site FlightAware.

Spirit canceled more than 40% of its flights Monday, and 19% of its flights on Sunday, per The New York Times, which cited previous FlightAware data.

A combination of bad weather, staff shortages, and system outages had caused the problems on Tuesday, Spirit spokesperson Field Sutton told Insider in an emailed statement.

"In responding to these challenges, Spirit has implemented some proactive cancellations again today to reset our operations," Sutton said.

The airline's cancellations over the previous two days were also caused by bad weather in addition to "operational challenges," a Spirit spokesperson told Insider on Monday.

Read more: Spirit Airlines' low-cost model puts it in the perfect spot to be the big winner of the pandemic, a Deutsche Bank analyst says

American Airlines also canceled 378 flights Tuesday, or 12% of its schedule that day, according to FlightAware data.

This was an improvement on Monday, when the airline canceled about 18% of its flights, The Times reported, citing previous FlightAware data.

Derek Walls, a company spokesperson, told Insider on Wednesday that stormy weather at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport that began Sunday was behind the cancellations.

"A prolonged severe weather event in Dallas Fort-Worth on Sunday night into Monday morning brought sustained heavy rain, strong winds, lightning, microbursts and hail to our largest hub," Walls said.

The cancellations come as air travel rebounds from its pandemic slump: The Transportation Security Administration reported screening more than 2.2 million passengers on Sunday, the highest number since February 2020.

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