Spirit Flagging

July 4, 2008 | Posted in: Spirit

The Miami Herald is reporting that Spirit Airlines could lay-off or “displace” up to 60% of its flight attendants, and as many as 45% of its pilots. If this happens, it’ll probably take place sometime in August. Joe Sharkey notes that Spirit’s CEO says, nothing’s been decided about “system wide capacity reductions” but it seems clear that will happen to some extent. However, apparently it HAS been decided that Spirit will close some of its “bases” and that includes the ones in LaGuadia and San Juan. It will also reduce its Ft. Lauderdale base (the home of the airline) and, for flight attendants, it is shutting its Detroit base. Sad days.

2 Responses to “Spirit Flagging”

1. Joe Rinaldi says:

   July 4, 2008 at 8:58 pm

   Bases are different from hubs. Bases are where crew members are based, while hubs are where aircraft and flights are based. While it would make sense to have both in the same city, this isn’t always the case. NK will likely significantly cut one or two of their hubs, but this is different from the aforementioned announcement.
2. Rick Seaney says:

   July 4, 2008 at 11:53 pm

   Joe, right you are (and it has been fixed); one of my colleagues posted this and I’ve since explained the base/hub difference. I think a lot of folks are unaware of this difference so glad for the chance to point it out.