Spirit Airlines

What’s going on with all their cancellations? Have they been hacked? It just seems weird that they can’t get these planes off the ground and the reasons I hear on the news seems made up.

Cancellation

The causes of Spirit Airlines’ massive flight cancellations that derailed the summer vacations of tens of thousands of customers this week have been brewing for more than a month, CEO Ted Christie said. A combination of flight delays throughout July, staffing shortages, technology problems and a surge in travel that has taken most airline executives by surprise, culminated with more than 1,700 flights canceled since Sunday, some days accounting more than half of Spirit’s schedule.

a reply to: iwanttobelieve70

Most of the airlines are using cruddy, decades-old software. If you have a friend in the airline industry ask them about SHARES, that POS system was introduced in, wait for it, 1968.

So in other words you aren't familiar with Spirit Airlines because if you were then you would realize it's par for the course with them.

Additionally which of the logical reasons listed in the article sound made up?

I bet some of it is from customers coming to redeem their cancelled flights from last year. Or Maybe they’ve been hacked and don’t want to admit it yet. It’s not like they have a shortage of jets, unless they did a massive liquidation.

Bad weather? Haha! Any Joe blow can zoom out on a weather map, looks clear to me, no cold fronts or hurricanes either.

originally posted by: opethPA
So in other words you aren't familiar with Spirit Airlines because if you were then you would realize it's par for the course with them.

Additionally which of the logical reasons listed in the article sound made up?

Seems like it’s more than just spirit as well. Just seems strange that nearly half are down.

originally posted by: iwanttobelieve70

originally posted by: opethPA
So in other words you aren't familiar with Spirit Airlines because if you were then you would realize it's par for the course with them.

Additionally which of the logical reasons listed in the article sound made up?

Seems like it’s more than just spirit as well. Just seems strange that nearly half are down.

Okay great, which of the reasons listed couldn't impact any of the carriers out there coming off the past 15 months?

Too many high fly'in pilots and attendants clotting out...

www.faa.gov...

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I heard their system went down when someone updated their Windows 98 with Service Pack 3.


ETA, all jokes aside, Spirit is claiming bad weather and understaffing - people don’t want to work.

Well in another thread, apparently a boarder town in Texas just received 7000 potential employees (COVID stricken boarder jumpers. but they will get better)
Problem solved!

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I heard their system went down when someone updated their Windows 98 with Service Pack 3.

no, that's silly. it was the upgrade to ME that got them.

originally posted by: Macenroe82
I heard their system went down when someone updated their Windows 98 with Service Pack 3.

I got a peek on how United's works, it might as well have been an abacus.

a reply to: iwanttobelieve70

I don't know, but an airline called "Spirits" is enough to turn me away anyways. I'm not yet ready to crash and become one.

Not much different than what AA did or is asking from their employees. Not enough employees to support travel. No way if I were still employed by United would I be working "voluntarily" to help the increased in summer travel. Poor planning by airline management coming out of COVID. But its Spirit, they are a very poor airline to being with, so they are reaping what they sowed. I have no sympathy for them when you put out a poor product.

originally posted by: GenerationGap
Too many high fly'in pilots and attendants clotting out...

www.faa.gov...

Cute PDF, bit that was the first thing that came to my mind.

Planning that Summer ESCAPE ?

U.S. Airports Are Facing Serious Jet Fuel Shortages - Aug 04, 2021

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a "Notice to Airmen" warning that some airports would not have enough jet fuel through Monday.

Flights were delayed at California's Santa Barbara airport, and some departing planes were forced to add stops for refueling last weekend. Meanwhile, the airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts, ran out of jet-A-grade fuel over the weekend.

Those problems followed a similar situation last week at the airport serving Reno, Nevada, and Lake Tahoe. - Bloomberg

Because Spirit SUCKS! Need I say more?

I wouldn't set foot on a Spirit plane! I'd rather fly on Garuda first (and that's saying something)!

Anyone remotely close to the business saw this one coming from a mile away. That whole airline is patched together with scotch tape and cooking twine; they're too cheap to even buy duct tape and bailing wire! They have credit card swipes in the seat backs and you periodically get a message..."Swipe card to continue playing Spirit's 'Take Me To My Destination' game."

One of our sayings is, if you screw up really bad you can always go to work for Spirit!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Boutique and Cape Air I’d say are worse, oil canning wings on 40 year old Florida salt air operated piston powered junk.

But I do like Southwest’s cattle herding fist come seating procedure, moooo…not.

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I heard their system went down when someone updated their Windows 98 with Service Pack 3.

I never did like Service Pack 3. I'm still running Service Pack 2 on my upstairs Windows 98 computer.

Because, in addition to other issues, Spirit and American both misjudged how fast air travel would bounce back this summer. When all this started, they laid off crews about as fast as they could, because no one was travelling. The initial estimates were that it would be at least next year, or 2023 before we were even close to the numbers we're seeing now. Other airlines saw things starting to open up, and brought back furloughed crews as fast as they could, to get them back up to speed as they got aircraft out of storage and flying again. American and Spirit were among the airlines that waited to see what would happen. American was able to get crews back after an initial hit, but no one wants to fly for Spirit if they can avoid it. And with some pilots that were furloughed choosing retirement, pilots have options right now. Add in a fuel shortage, and maintenance problems with aircraft that sat for a year or more, and a low cost airline that doesn't want to pay for anything it doesn't have to, and you have the current problem with Spirit.

a reply to: 38181

Well, okay, but those guys are all feeders. The stories I could tell about feeders! Actually, Boutique is running Caravan's out of here to some of the mountain airports. They're pretty nice with their one and one setup. Like a private charter.

Never rode on Cape.

Heck if Naples was still flying they'd probably still be using their old DC-3's. Rode on those guys more than a few times in my life. And then there was Marco, flying the old Martin 404's and piston 580 Convairs. Those were some great old airplanes.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Oh boy, American made all kinds of mistakes! They're right down there with Spirit in my book. I spent a lot of time on American back in '19 when we were working down in South America. Not only is American cheap like SW, but they're also slow to react like Spirit. AA shot themselves in the foot with the MAX, and this was part of the reason they took so long to bring their people back. They sent all those MD-80's out to Mojave thinking they were going to clean up with the MAX only for it to get grounded and then the Vid hit. AA was way behind the curve the whole way.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see AA get eaten. If it wasn't for South America they probably would've been gobbled up already. They got looked at hard by Delta, and then UA back just before the US Air deal. That would have been a great score for either of those two. They could have dumped a bunch of overhead and picked up a bunch of routes and slots with their excess capacity and existing equipment. Made sense for UA geographically, and Delta from a fleet standpoint. AA has been nosediving ever since.