ORLANDO, Fla. – Dozens of Spirit flights in and out of Orlando International Airport have been canceled as the airline says it’s necessary in order to perform aircraft inspections.
Spirit on Friday canceled about 100 flights nationwide, many of them at MCO — 45 by Friday afternoon — where the airline is the second-largest carrier.
In a statement, the airline said that it could take several days before things are back to normal.
While this action is being taken out of an abundance of caution, the impact to our network is expected to last several days as we complete the inspections and work to return to normal operations. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to take care of affected Guests. Our Guests are advised to monitor their email and check their flight status on spirit.com or the Spirit Airlines App before heading to the airport.
Spirit statement
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Twenty-five aircraft are to be inspected, according to Spirit, calling it a small section of its planes.
Jose Soto and his brother made a stop Friday at MCO, where their flight to Cartagena, Colombia, had been canceled.
“Not the best. I don’t think I’ll ever go on Spirit again or even book anything with Spirit again,” Soto said. “We had to book other flights and then wait for this to get our money back and not even getting (it) back right away, we have to wait seven days.”
For Sebastian Diego and his family, they were supposed to fly out to Houston on Friday morning, but their plans had to change when their flight was canceled as well.
“I’m sad because I want to see my brother,” Diego said.
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, 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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