Two major U.S. airlines, Spirit and American, have canceled hundreds of flights this week, including several to Costa Rica.
Monday, Spirit flight 335 to Costa Rica (SJO) from Fort Lauderdale was canceled. American didn’t operate flights 1053 and 1155 from Dallas/Fort Worth. Both airlines appear to be operating these routes on Tuesday — albeit with delays — though reports indicate the two carriers have canceled nearly 600 flights today across its U.S. and international destinations.
American’s issues are the consequence of weekend storms that impacted flights to and from its Dallas/Fort Worth hub. Spirit has cited “operational challenges” as the reason for its struggles.
“We’re working around the clock to mitigate the travel disruptions caused by overlapping operational challenges including weather, system outages and staffing shortages in some areas of the operation,” reads a statement issued by Spirit. “In responding to these challenges, Spirit has implemented some proactive cancellations again today to reset our operations.”
According to tracking website FlightAware, Spirit has canceled about 50% of its Tuesday flights, while American hasn’t operated 9% of flights as of midday Tuesday.
American flies to Guanacaste and the San José area in Costa Rica from New York (JFK), Miami (MIA), Charlotte (CLT), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Phoenix (PHX).
Spirit, a low-cost carrier based in Florida, offers routes to SJO from FLL and Orlando (MCO).
