DALLAS, Texas: Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have announced a new series of reductions to their spring flight schedules, caused by issues ranging from staffing shortages to rising fuel prices.

Southwest Airlines posted a regulatory filing this week, in which the Dallas-based company is cutting 65,000 flights from its spring schedule due to ongoing staffing issues.

In the filing, Southwest said its “flight schedule is currently published through September 5, 2022, and as previously disclosed, the Company recently reduced its published flight schedules for March through May 2022 due to continuing challenges with available staffing.”

United has also filed a report noting it will reduce its scheduled flights, citing “macroeconomic” factors, such as fuel prices, supply chain issues and global instability.

“In response to several macroeconomic factors, including rising fuel prices, as well as expected aircraft delivery delays, United Airlines has reduced its total capacity plan for the full year 2022 to be down in the high single digits, versus full year 2019,” it added.

According to the airline, the reduction in United’s flights would lead to an increase in the Cost Per Available Seat Mile (CASM) of several percentage points above previously expected benchmarks.

In their filings, both Southwest and United noted rising demand for travel following spiking cases caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The announcements also come amidst rising frustrations among Houston travelers, many of whom could find themselves affected by delays related to spring break travel and ongoing construction at George Bush International Airport.

Houston airports are expecting 1.76 million people to travel through William P. Hobby Airport and George Bush International during spring break 2022, according to a recent KHOU report.

Travelers are advised to arrive four hours early for international flights and three hours for domestic departures.