Spirit Air says canceled flights cost $50M, hurt bookings

Spirit Airlines said Monday the cancellation of more than 2,800 flights over an 11-day stretch this summer cost the budget airline about $50m in lost revenue and caused spending to soar. The airline said the service meltdown that started in late July and a rise in COVID-19 cases are causing more last-minute cancellations and softer bookings. Spirit said that it will reduce flights — it called the moves “tactical schedule reductions” — for the rest of the quarter, which ends Sept. 30. With all the cancellations, and now fewer flights for the next six weeks, Spirit estimated that its third-quarter revenue will range between $885m and $955m, or 4% to 11% below the same quarter in pre-pandemic 2019. Spirit’s cancellation numbers have returned to more normal levels. However, the airline said that recovering from the crisis caused expenses to climb. The airline said it paid to put some stranded passengers on flights operated by other airlines, and covered their hotel stays. It also incurred higher labor costs, such as overtime. Spirit forecast that its third-quarter operating expenses will be slightly above $1 billion — an increase of up to 20% over Q3 2019.<br/>