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Spirit turbulence reaches Austin airport as airline continues flight-canceling frenzy

Lines at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport are nearly back to their heyday as summer travel peaks and major airlines experience widespread cancellations. (Claire Partain/Austonia)
Spirit Airlines continues to take a nosedive as it cancels most of its flights nationwide; 22 flights were canceled from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport alone since Sunday.
The Florida-based carrier stumbled through the beginning of the week, canceling half of its schedule on Tuesday due to glitches in staff scheduling technology and infrastructure issues spurred on by weather-related concerns. Cancellation woes continued into Wednesday, with 418 flights (60%) of their schedule canceled by 1 p.m.
Hard to see how #spiritairlines survives after this weekend. My boyfriend and I only got a small taste of the chaos in Orlando and Houston. I feel for the thousands of other passengers who are having a worse experience. pic.twitter.com/QKrOGsuULD
— Alicia Pryor (@PryorAlicia) August 2, 2021
Only one flight out of the six arrivals and six departures scheduled at ABIA will still arrive according to plan on Wednesday, ABIA Public Information Officer Bryce Dubee told Austonia.
"Spirit has had some ongoing operational issues and has seen a significant number of cancellations," Dubee said. "For them, it is significant."
The airline was joined by American Airlines with high cancellations rates. AA scrapped 300 flights by early afternoon Tuesday, but the high number only accounts for 9% of its schedule. By Wednesday afternoon, only 3% of flights were taken off the schedule.
Dubee said that American Airlines had only canceled one arrival to ABIA since Sunday and that the issues "don't seem to be ongoing." American Airlines said that at least three-fourths of cancellations were due, at least in part, to a lack of pilots, while others, namely at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, were weather-related.
Meanwhile, Spirit said in a statement that they would see cancellations start dropping on Thursday.
The airline, which saw 20% of its schedule canceled Sunday and 42% Monday, said that "overlapping operational challenges including weather, system outages and staffing shortages" caused issues in crew scheduling. Some of the cancellations were made proactively as they fought to reset the sinking ship.
The issue was exacerbated by peak summer travel crowds. While airports are seeing 80% of pre-pandemic peak travel levels, many airline and airport companies have significantly fewer on staff. Spirit's pilot union said in a tweet that staffing strikes were not the cause for the week's cancellations.
Spirit Airlines has recently been experiencing a series of operational struggles. These issues are not due to a pilot strike. Any such rumor or report is completely false. (1/2)
— Spirit ALPA MEC (@SpiritMEC_ALPA) August 2, 2021
Unlike other standard airlines, the "ultra-low-cost-carrier" doesn't have agreements when cancellations occur, meaning travelers can be left stranded. While Dubee said the cancellations have not caused anything more than general frustration for customers at ABIA, unconfirmed reports of riots in Puerto Rico and Florida rose to the surface in the wake of the cancellations.
When #spiritairlines leaves you stranded in Puerto Rico with no employees in sight and holds your luggage and money hostage.
We were stuck overnight with no clothes or essentials for our 3 or 1 year olds and are still without answers and searching for flights #Spirit#uselesspic.twitter.com/jzKqf9Yuhn
— Tito Arias (@2touchTito) August 2, 2021
Spirit said that lines have already begun to decrease substantially as they work to make amends—including providing refunds and helping process meal and hotel vouchers—and reboot the network. The carrier also pointed out that they held the lowest percentage of cancellations in 2020 and would soon be able to bounce back from the meltdown.
In the meantime, Dubee said its best for Spirit customers traveling through ABIA to check with the airline itself for more assistance, refunds and cancellation information.
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Popular
(Tesla)
Giga Texas, the massive Tesla factory in southeast Travis County is getting even bigger.
The company filed with the city of Austin this week to expand its headquarters with a new 500,000-square-foot building. The permit application notes “GA 2 and 3 expansion,” which indicates the company will make two general assembly lines in the building.
More details about the plans for the building are unclear. The gigafactory has been focused on Model Y production since it opened in April, but the company is also aiming for Cybertruck production to kick off in mid-2023.
While there is room for expansion on the 3.3 square miles of land Tesla has, this move comes after CEO Elon Musk’s recent comments about the state of the economy and its impact on Tesla.
In a May interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, Musk said the gigafactories in Berlin and Austin are “gigantic money furnaces” and said Giga Texas had manufactured only a small number of cars.
And in June, Musk sent a company wide email saying Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10%, then later tweeted salaried headcount should be fairly flat.
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(Dullnig Ranch Sales)
You’ll have to leave city limits if you’re looking for a proper ranch property like 417 Acres Shipp Lake Ranch, aptly named for its acreage. The property comes built out with three farmhouses, one of which has bedrooms and two bathrooms and two of which have two bedrooms and one bathroom. The nearly untouched property, which surrounds the 100-plus-acre Shipp Lake, has remained in the same family since the early 1900s and gives you picturesque views for the making of a dream home. In fact, the previous owners ran a water ski camp on the property.
Sitting waterside on Lake Austin, this home gives you the unique opportunity to own a piece of the lush Hill Country with views of Mount Bonnell. The 2,750-square foot, three-bedroom, four-bathroom house allows you to integrate indoor and outdoor life with large windows opening to an outdoor living area. The crown jewel is the .76-acre parcel of land that tapers off to your own lakeside resort, featuring an covered outdoor kitchen, fire pit, stone boat house to store your water sports supplies and veranda sitting at the mouth of the water, perfect for an entertainer.
Got dreams of becoming a real Texas rancher? 7814 Brown Cemetery Rd. is the perfect place to start with 40 rolling acres of land and its very own swimming hole. Just east of Austin in Manor, the modest-on-the-outside home clocks at 4,412 square feet with five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms, but there are an additional two living structures on the property. The horseshoe-shaped pond sits in the heart of the property and comes equipped with a water slide, diving board and a fishing dock.