Massive Flight Delays and Cancellations at American, Southwest, Spirit Continue Into Wednesday

An American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER in Dallas

Air travelers in the United States face hundreds more flight cancellations and delays for the fourth day in a row as airlines struggle to recover from disruptions caused by severe weather in the Dallas/Fort Worth area over the weekend.

The outlook for Wednesday doesn’t look much better.

As of 9:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Spirit had already cancelled 47% of its flights, or 321, and posted 17 delays, just 2% of overall flying. Meanwhile, Southwest already had 421 delays, 12% of flying, and just 8 cancellations, and American reported 92 cancellations, or 3% of overall flying, and 120 delays, which is 4% of Wednesday’s flights.

On Tuesday, 61% of Spirit Airlines’ flights – 629 to be exact – were cancelled, while an additional 19%, or 137, were delayed, according to FlightAware, which tracks such information.   Meanwhile, American Airlines reported delays on 29% of its flights, a total of 891, and an additional 12%, or 377, were delayed.  Southwest Airlines said that 34% of its flights on Tuesday had been delayed, some 1,192, and the airline only cancelled 106 flights, or 3%.

The delays and cancellations followed similarly high numbers from Sunday and Monday.

American Airlines blamed most of the delays on the weather, although CNBC reported that at least 120 cancellations were due to staffing issues in the cockpit.

“Mother Nature isn’t playing nicely and many flights in and out [of] DFW are delayed or cancelled,” American Airlines had said in multiple tweets to customers Sunday.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)