Americans antsy to break out of their lockdowns and enjoy a real spring break are now spending their vacations on airport floors, stranded by storms and technical issues that have led to over 12,000 canceled or delayed flights across several airlines this weekend.
Because of storms in Florida and a technology issue, Southwest Airlines was the hardest hit in terms of the number of flights. The airline canceled 520 Saturday flights, or 14% of its operation, and 398 Sunday flights.
Thunderstorms are especially challenging for airlines because they are harder to predict and plan for compared with other weather like winter storms and hurricanes, during which airlines often cancel flights hours if not days in advance.
We are experiencing flight disruptions across our network today due to briefly pausing our service earlier this morning as we worked to resolve an intermittent technology issue, as well as ongoing weather challenges impacting multiple areas within our system. (1/2)
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) April 2, 2022
More than 65,000 American Airlines customers, including those on regional airlines, were impacted by the disruptions on Saturday, according to an internal tally. About a third of cancellations were tied to a lack of crew availability. Budget airline Spirit, which has its headquarters and largest hub in Fort Lauderdale, has had the highest percentage of weekend cancellations. The airline canceled 27% of its Saturday flights and so far has canceled 27% of its Sunday flights, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
This is the scene in ATL right now… my @Delta flight got canceled with no explanation, they rebooked us on flights tomorrow with layovers all over, didn’t give us any hotel or other voucher/credit for tonight, and they don’t even know where my bag is… pic.twitter.com/UreTXN8zwL
— Camelia Malkami (@CMalkami) April 3, 2022
Several other airlines reported problems as well. JetBlue Airways canceled…