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'Incredibly Rude and Unhelpful': Customers Enraged After Spirit Airlines Abruptly Cancels Hundreds of Flights for 'Aircraft Maintenance' The airline pulled an estimated 25 planes from its fleet over the weekend.

By Emily Rella

If you're planning to fly with Spirit Airlines anytime soon, you might want to triple-check your travel arrangements. Over the weekend, the budget-friendly airline abruptly canceled hundreds of flights, causing mass delays and cancelations.

In a statement, the company said it was inspecting aircraft and disruptions would last a few days.

"While this action is being taken out of an abundance of caution, the impact to our network is expected to last several days as we complete the inspections and work to return to normal operations," Spirit Airlines said in a statement. "We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to take care of affected guests."

Related: Popular U.S. Airline to Pay Millions in Class Action Over 'Gotcha' Bag Fees — Find Out If You Qualify for Cash

According to FlightAware, Spirit had canceled 237 flights between Friday and Saturday and delayed another 363.

On Sunday, the airline canceled another 76 flights and delayed 170.

Travelers took to social media to lament over disrupted plans and unexpected cancelations.

According to the Associated Press, the Federal Aviation Administration said that Spirit was performing a "mandatory maintenance inspection" of 25 of its aircraft to look for cracks near the "fasteners that attach pressure panels to beams on the planes' airframe."

Spirit Airlines did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur's request for comment.

Related: Frontier Airlines Debuts Unlimited Flight Pass

In August, Spirit had to settle an $8.2 million class-action lawsuit over hidden "gotcha" bag fees after customers alleged that they were charged for bringing carry-on bags after they had already purchased their tickets.

Spirit Airlines was down just under 21% year over year as of Monday morning.

Emily Rella

Entrepreneur Staff

Senior News Writer

Emily Rella is a Senior News Writer at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was an editor at Verizon Media. Her coverage spans features, business, lifestyle, tech, entertainment, and lifestyle. She is a 2015 graduate of Boston College and a Ridgefield, CT native. Find her on Twitter at @EmilyKRella.

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