Spirit Airlines may lay off or displace up to 60 percent of its flight attendants and as many as 45 percent of its pilots in two months, as it struggles to cope with soaring jet-fuel prices.
The Miramar-based low-cost carrier sent letters to union leaders Saturday, notifying them that it will furlough or displace up to 448 flight attendants and 242 pilots on Aug. 1, as the airline closes its New York LaGuardia and San Juan bases and reduces its Fort Lauderdale base. For flight attendants, the airline is also shutting its Detroit base.
''We were blindsided,'' said Sean Creed, chairman of the Spirit Airlines pilots union. ``Nobody expected it.''
Spirit would not confirm the numbers or disclose what flight cancellations will accompany the layoffs.
But according to the letters to Patricia Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, up to 240 attendants will be affected in Fort Lauderdale, 141 in Detroit, 15 in New York and 52 in San Juan. Each letter names the flight attendants affected. Spirit has about 750 flight attendants.
The letters, written by Jeff Carlson, Spirit's vice president of flight operations, are required by law under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, as well as by union contracts.
Creed said that up to 242 pilots will also be affected, but he was driving and did not have the letters with the breakdowns by base. Spirit has 540 pilots, he said.
''Everybody is shocked,'' said Creed, who is based in Fort Lauderdale but lives in Connersville, Ind. ``We had a meeting [May] 21st with the company, when they gave a completely different impression of the state of the industry as far as Spirit Airlines is concerned.''
Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson would not discuss details.
''Spirit notified the labor representatives of flight crews of potential reductions. These notices are necessary to comply with the WARN Act,'' she wrote via e-mail in response to questions.
``Spirit has made no final decisions about reductions, if any, but to maintain flexibility, we will need to continue to evaluate our overall flying this fall during our lowest demand period of the year if fuel prices remain at record levels.''
Spirit's roots are in Detroit, but it moved to Miramar in 1999 and began its strongest growth spurt after the private equity firm Indigo Partners took a majority ownership stake in July 2006.
Boosting its flights to Latin America and the Caribbean, Spirit in May 2007 became the largest carrier at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
But the airline lost $16.7 million in the fourth quarter, on $187.1 million in revenue, according to the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The prospective layoffs are the latest pullback in an industry reeling from record fuel prices. Last month, American Airlines said it would eliminate an unspecified number of jobs as it reduces its domestic capacity up to 12 percent in the fourth quarter.
