Young airline passengers sit on their luggage outside a terminal building.
Spirit Airlines cancelled more than 400 flights on August 3 in the third consecutive delay of cancellations and delays.
Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
  • Spirit Airlines canceled another 429 flights on Tuesday, or 61% of its schedule, per FlightAware.
  • American Airlines canceled 378 flights, or 12% of its schedule that day, per FlightAware data.
  • Spirit blamed bad weather, staff shortages, and system outages for the cancellations.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Spirit Airlines canceled another 429 flights on Tuesday – most of its schedule – as bad weather and IT issues plagued the airline for a third consecutive day.

The cancellations made up 61% of Spirit's Tuesday schedule, with a futher 18% delayed, according to flight data site FlightAware.

Spirit canceled more than 40% of its flights Monday, and 19% of its flights on Sunday, per The New York Times, which cited previous FlightAware data.

A combination of bad weather, staff shortages, and system outages had caused the problems on Tuesday, Spirit spokesperson Erik Hofmeyer told CBS News Tuesday.

"In responding to these challenges, Spirit has implemented some proactive cancellations again today to reset our operations," Hofmeyer told CBS News.

The airline's cancellations over the previous two days were also caused by bad weather in addition to "operational challenges," a Spirit spokesperson told Insider on Monday.

Read more: Spirit Airlines' low-cost model puts it in the perfect spot to be the big winner of the pandemic, a Deutsche Bank analyst says

American Airlines also canceled 378 flights Tuesday, or 12% of its schedule that day, according to FlightAware data.

This was an improvement on Monday, when the airline canceled about 18% of its flights, The Times reported, citing previous FlightAware data.

Curtis Blessing, a company spokesperson, told The Times on Tuesday that stormy weather at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport that began Sunday was behind the cancellations.

"A prolonged severe weather event in Dallas Fort Worth on Sunday night into Monday morning brought sustained heavy rain, strong winds, lightning, microbursts and hail to our largest hub," Blessing said, per the paper.

The cancellations come as air travel rebounds from its pandemic slump: The Transportation Security Administration reported screening more than 2.2 million passengers on Sunday, the highest number since February 2020.

Spirit and American did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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