Spirit Airlines Reviews Why They’ve Left Passengers Stranded
Spirit Airlines left passengers stranded at several airports over the past few days.
“They’re not really good at communicating. The first thing they did was nothing,” said a frustrated Spirit Airlines passenger in Atlantic City.
Flight with Spirit Airlines from ATL to Tx was cancelled with no apologies after 5 hours of delay. #NeverFlySpiritAirlines
— Margo Frazier (@FrazierMargo) June 19, 2015
Many other passengers agreed with the statement, but not all of them were from the same area. Other Spirit passengers were stranded at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, LAX, Cleveland Hopkins Airport, and many others.
After the cancelation of several flights, rumors circulated through the passengers that the reason stemmed from a Spirit worker strike. Depending on which passengers were questioned and in which area, the rumors indicated it could be pilots or flight attendants.
Spirit Airlines spokesperson Paul Berry spoke to Press of Atlantic City to try and quell the rumors.
“We had significant stress to our system because of the bad weather and the difficulty of getting pilots and flight attendants to originating cities to operate our flights … It’s not because of a job action. There’s been significant weather issues across the country. This has made it difficult for Spirit pilots and flight attendants to get to originating cities.”
In a statement to Local10.com, Spirit Airlines went on to say, “[T]he recent bad weather in Chicago, Houston and Dallas has put a significant strain on our network and has made it difficult getting pilots and flight attendants to a few cities. Because of this, we have had to cancel some flights and delay others.”
Spirit Airlines is placing the blame on Tropical Storm Bill. The storm pelted areas of Texas and Missouri, threatening floods and other difficult weather situations for an airport to handle. Severe weather was also causing issues in Chicago, but it was unrelated to the storm.
Some passengers weren’t convinced by Spirit Airlines comments.
“Every other airline has no flights canceled and they’re booking us on every other airline. It only seems to be affecting Spirit. I’ve never heard of weather that only picks on one airline,” said Steven Abrahamson, one of the stranded passengers.
Convinced @SpiritAirlines is actually just a spoof on @jimmyfallon. There’s no way this is a REAL airline! #rude #dishonest
— Rachel Koontz (@rachelmkoontz) June 19, 2015
Many passengers were able to book flights on other airlines. Delays were few and far between on those flights.
The passengers left behind were furious. In Fort Lauderdale, Broward Sheriff’s office was called in to help keep the peace. No one was arrested.
In the meantime, Spirit Airlines insists that 85 percent of their Spirit Network is running well. They offered a press release indicating what refunds will be available and when.
[Image courtesy of Scott Olson/Getty Images]
