Spirit Airlines cancels dozens of flights, losing part of its fleet

Spirit Airlines It canceled about 100 flights on Friday after some planes were taken out of service for inspections, and the airline expects these disruptions to continue for several days.

Spirit had canceled 11% of its flight schedule for the day as of Friday afternoon, the highest percentage of canceled flights among major U.S. airlines, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.

“We have canceled a portion of our scheduled flights to conduct the necessary inspection of a small section of 25 of our aircraft,” Spirit said in a statement. “The impact on our service is expected to last several days as we complete inspections and work to return to normal operations.”.

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The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was aware of Spirit’s decision to take the planes out of service for a “mandatory maintenance inspection.” The FAA also did not describe the inspections, but said so “We will ensure the matter is addressed before the aircraft return to service.”

Spirit had 198 aircraft as of June 30, all of them Airbus A320 series models, according to a company regulatory filing.

The airline asked its customers to check the status of their flight before going to the airport.

almost Half of Spirit’s flights were canceled at Orlando International Airport in Florida, where Spirit is the second-largest airline.

Spirit, based in Miramar, Florida, has canceled more than 3,600 flights this year, or 1.5% of its schedule. That number is lower than the 2% cancellation rate of Frontier Airlines, a similar low-cost airline, and the rates of JetBlue Airways and United Airlines.