The airline said the problem was affecting Spirit.com, the Spirit Airlines app and its airport kiosks, delaying three-quarters of its flights.
About 90% of Spirit Airlines flights were delayed Thursday due to a technical problem affecting the carrier’s website.
In a tweet posted at 8:43 a.m., Spirit said the issue was affecting Spirit.com, the Spirit Airlines app and its airport kiosks, leading to delays.
In an emailed statement at 10:44 a.m., a Spirit spokesman said the issue had been resolved.
“We have resolved a network issue between third-party services that affected our website, mobile app and some internal apps,” the airline said in a follow-up email. “We apologize for any delays and inconvenience and are now returning to normal operations.”
According to flight-tracking website Pulse by Anuvu, less than 24 percent of Spirit flights were departing on time at 10:30 a.m. of Thursday.
By about noon, the figure had risen to nearly 90 percent — with more than 3 percent of flights being canceled.
The problem represents a troubling start to the summer travel season as the US airline industry seeks to avoid a repeat of last year’s turmoil, when carriers were plagued by delays and cancellations.
And it comes just as the Transportation Security Administration reported that screening volumes for 2023 have surpassed 2019 levels — putting even more pressure on airlines to meet growing demand.
In an interview before Memorial Day, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned, “We’re not out of the woods.”
“We’ve seen demand come back for air travel – and the system is struggling to keep up,” he said.
