American, Southwest, Spirit Cancel Hundreds of Flights Because ‘Mother Nature Isn’t Playing Nicely’

A Southwest jet taking off in Newark

Travelers flying on American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Spirit Airlines were probably late in getting to their destinations Sunday and Monday.

The three airlines reported high numbers of flight delays and cancellations.

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

Some 40% of Spirit’s flights – 341 in all – were delayed Sunday, while 165 were cancelled, according to data from FlightAware, which tracks such information. American reported that 30% of its flights – or 948 – were delayed and 238 were cancelled.  Meanwhile, Southwest said that a whopping 1,548 flights – 40% – were delayed although only 106, or 2%, were cancelled.

The situation wasn’t that much better on Monday when American reported that 30% of its flights – 899 as of 8:48 p.m. EDT – were delayed and 529, or 17%, were cancelled altogether.  Spirit said that 40% of its flights on Monday, some 313, were cancelled while 212, or 27%, were delayed, and Southwest saw 1,174 flights – or 32% – delayed, while only 1% – a mere 44 – were cancelled.

American blamed severe weather for the delays.

“We have experienced cancellations and delays yesterday and today, mainly due to weather and ATC impacts at DFW Airport, including two ramp closures yesterday and a ground stop earlier today related to ongoing weather-recovery efforts,” the airline said in an e-mailed statement. The airline expects to see operations return to normal by Tuesday.

The delays and cancellations took place on the same day that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration reported a new pandemic-era record for the number of passengers traversing the nation’s airport security checkpoints.  The TSA said that 2.24 million people were screened, topping the previous record set July 18.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)