Spirit will furlough 1,800 flight attendants — as it navigates second bankruptcy
Broward-based Spirit Airlines will furlough approximately 1,800 flight attendants in two phases by year-end, the company said, as it continues to restructure its business and find its financial footing.
The first will be voluntary. Package details are to go out this week to flight attendants. They’ll have until Sep. 26 to decide to participate, an internal memo said.
The union that represents Spirit’s flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, said in a statement that the voluntary furloughs will be offered for six months or 1 year time periods, effective Nov. 1. Those eligible to bid for the voluntary furlough can bid for one of those options or both, with a preference of time period.
Based on how the first phase goes, the involuntary furlough will take place starting Dec. 1. beginning with least senior employees, said the internal memo, dated Sept 22, written by John Bendoraitis, Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, and viewed by the Herald. The move targets about one-third of the approximately 5,200 flight attendants Spirit has.
“As we work to return Spirit to profitability, we face difficult decisions about our network, our fleet, and ultimately our workforce.,” wrote Bendoraitis in the memo.
The voluntary first phase is required by the flight attendants’ collective agreement.
Fewer flights and destinations
The move comes just five days after Spirit CEO Dave Davis wrote in another email that the Broward carrier expects to slash flights in November. “You will see a reduction of about 25% in capacity, year over year, as we optimize our network to focus on our strongest markets,” he said.
Two weeks earlier, Spirit said it would stop service to 12 U.S. cities, including 4 with direct service to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The four were Birmingham, Alabama; Columbia, South Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Macon. Those flights will stop operating the week of Oct. 2, 2025. Spirit had planned to start serving Macon on Oct. 16.
Spirit, which provided FLL more passengers in 2024 than any other airline did, is an important airline there, and to the region. About 1100 flight attendants are based at FLL.
On Aug. 29, Spirit filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than 12 months.
More changes to come?
Monday’s memo from Bendoraitis said the company has been able to last this long without involuntary layoffs due to “extended voluntary time off” flight attendants have taken. The carrier has had as many as 1,000 flight attendants on voluntary time off. It currently has 800.
“However, there’s a limit to how many people can volunteer for these types of leave, and we have reached that mark,” he wrote.
“We need to shift our focus to a complete rightsizing of the airline, which means volume-based adjustments to our Flight Attendant group and across our teams.”
That certainly signals more layoffs are likely across roles.
“We have been able to mitigate harm for our workgroup until this point,” the Association of Flight Attendants said in a statement on Monday. “The problem is that the significant reduction of aircraft and flight hours requires a much higher reduction in force.”