Spirit Airlines plans to furlough a third of its flight attendants as it seeks to cut costs in a bid to survive.
The airline, which in August filed for its second bankruptcy in a year, said on Monday that it plans to put about 1,800 of about 5,200 flight attendants on extended leave by December. The airline had said previously that it would use the bankruptcy to retrench, cutting its fleet of planes and limiting flying to its most important markets.
“We recognize the impact of this decision on affected team members, and we are committed to treating them with care and respect during this process,” the airline said in a statement.
Spirit rose in recent decades to become one of the most recognizable, if polarizing, budget airlines in the United States. But it has also become a victim of its own success, with major airlines now offering competing bare-bones fares and the U.S. market flooded with flights to the leisure destinations Spirit traditionally served.
In a memo to flight attendants, John Bendoraitis, the chief operating officer at Spirit, said that the airline had so far been able to avoid involuntary furloughs, thanks to flight attendants who had opted to take voluntary leave. At times, as many as 1,000 attendants had signed up, with more than 800 currently on leave, he said. Those 800 employees would be among those placed on extended leave in December.
The airline will seek more volunteers this week to go on furlough starting Nov. 1, according to a copy of the memo seen by The New York Times. But Spirit will then put more employees on involuntary furlough a month later.
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