More than 40 Spirit Airlines flights to and from Orlando International Airport were canceled Friday because the carrier needed to inspect some of its planes – an issue expected to upend flight schedules for several days.
“We’ve cancelled a portion of our scheduled flights to perform a necessary inspection of a small section of 25 of our aircraft,” Spirit said in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel. “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.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said approximately 25 of Spirit’s Airbus airplanes were removed from service for “mandatory maintenance inspection.”
“The FAA will ensure that the matter is addressed before the airplanes are returned to service,” the FAA statement added.
The website flight-tracking website FlightAware showed the inspections caused the cancellation of 11% of Spirit’s Friday flight schedule.
South Florida-based Spirit is the second-busiest carrier at Orlando International. A check of the airport’s flight status website on Friday morning showed more than 40 Spirit cancellations, almost evenly split between departures and arrivals.
The canceled flights impacted travel between Orlando and domestic cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City and Newark as well as foreign destinations such as Columbia and the Dominican Republic.
Long lines quickly formed at Spirit’s customer service locations at the Orlando airport.
“We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to take care of affected Guests,” Spirit said in its statement. “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.”
Travelers whose Spirit flights are canceled can accept a rebooking on the next available flight. Or, they can cancel their booking entirely and ask for a refund, “which may be credited back to your original form of payment or as a Spirit Airlines flight credit,” according to the personal finance website NerdWallet.
The U.S. Department of Transportation says if a traveler’s flight is canceled, and an airline cannot rebook the flier or the person decides not to travel, the customer is entitled to a full refund of the unused portion of the trip. That also includes fees charged for services such as seat selection and baggage checking.
Spirit, known as an ultra low-cost carrier, is poised to be taken over by discounter JetBlue Airways of New York for $3.8 billion.
But the Biden Administration has sued to stop the combination. An antitrust trial on the matter is scheduled to start Monday before a federal judge in Boston.
David Lyons of the South Florida Sun Sentinel contributed to this report.
