Embattled ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has just canceled plans to furlough hundreds of pilots without pay for the foreseeable future as it navigates its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy process… but those plans haven’t been canceled because the airline is seeing a pickup in demand.
Instead, so many of Spirit’s pilots have been jumping ship to rival airlines in the last few months that furlough forecasts have been made completely redundant.
Spirit cancels pilot furlough plans after hundreds quit
In September, it was revealed that the Florida-based budget airline would be looking to furlough hundreds of pilots and flight attendants as it attempts to shrink back to profitability.
Spirit is axing unprofitable routes, slashing schedules, and handing back unneeded airplanes to lessors, meaning that it simply doesn’t need as many aircrew as it has employed up to this point.
Based on its forecast flying for the year ahead, Spirit announced that it would need to furlough as many as 365 pilots and downgrade 170 Captains from the start of 2026.
But since that announcement, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has been tracking attrition levels amongst its members at Spirit, and it realized that the assumptions used to generate the furlough numbers were becoming quickly outdated.
So many pilots were voluntarily quitting the airline that mandatory furloughs became unnecessary.
Beleagured airline was looking for $100 million in concessions from aircrew
In order to unlock a form of funding from lenders known as Debtor-in-Possession financing, or DIP for short, Spirit was legally required to renegotiate labor contracts with its pilots and flight attendants.
Spirit approached its aircrew unions last month seeking an estimated $100 million in concessions. The majority of these savings are going to come from the pilots’ contract, given how much more pilots are paid compared to flight attendants.
Given that Spirit really is facing a battle for its survival, the aircrew unions didn’t outright reject these demands, but worked with the airline to agree to big cuts to their respective contracts, albeit with provisions to restore their old contracts should Spirit return to profitability.
Flight attendants have been furloughed as bankruptcy proceedings continue
Unfortunately, plans to furlough around 1,800 flight attendants proceeded as planned late last month.
The airline has also sought voluntary furloughs, but the number of flight attendants who opted for this was far below the numbers required by Spirit. The airline chose flight attendants in reverse seniority order, or what is often coined as ‘last in, first out.’
Although all of these flight attendants have been officially furloughed with a view to them eventually returning to the airline, crew members are also realistic about the fact that this might not ever happen.
Does Spirit have an independent future or is a merger now inevitable?
Spirit’s management is adamant that they are going through the Chapter 11 process with the aim of keeping the airline an independent company that becomes profitable.
Many other people in the industry, however, are less certain that Spirit can emerge from bankruptcy and stay profitable in the long term. The obvious merger is between Spirit and rival ultra-low-cost carrier Frontier, although Spirit has previously rejected several approaches from its Denver-based competitor.
Bottom line
None of Spirit’s pilot workforce will now need to be involuntarily furloughed, although that’s only because so many pilots have already jumped before they were pushed.
That being said, around 25 pilots of Captain rank will still be downgraded to First Officer rank, and the airline still intends to dramatically reduce its Las Vegas pilot base, with crew moved to either Fort Lauderdale or Newark.
