Spirit pulls back on layoffs

Airline makes deals with employees

Spirit Airlines won’t need to cut up to 2,500 from its payroll as management has made voluntary leave and other arrangements with hundreds of employees, the company said Tuesday.

Faced with a dramatic decline in passenger traffic caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Spirit earlier this month announced 2,500 furloughs and layoffs companywide.

“The actual number will be a small fraction of that, which is a testament to strength of the Spirit family,” the Miramarbased company said in a statement. “Discussions with other work groups are already resulting in an outpouring of support, which is reducing the need for furloughs and layoffs even further.”

The company employs nearly 10,000 people.

A key development apparently came this week when the airline signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the Spirit contingent of the Air Line Pilots Association to avoid furloughs.

On Aug. 3, the airline notified various states including Florida that it would furlough 800 pilots between Oct. 1 and Oct. 14.

“But the group’s response to voluntary leave offers was strong enough to drop that number to zero,” the company said.

Spirit did not disclose the terms of the alternative cost cutting.

But in its own statement, the pilots union said hundreds of cockpit crew members had agreed to work fewer hours to preserve the jobs of those who

would have been furloughed.

“Nearly half of the more than 2,500 Spirit pilots have agreed to temporarily work fewer hours each month to prevent 600 pilots from being furloughed beginning Oct. 1,” said Scott Vallach, chairman of ALPA’s Spirit Airlines Master Executive Council.

Their furloughs, he said, had been canceled “effective immediately.” The union did not address the remaining 200 pilots who had been designated for furloughs by Spirit.

The Oct. 1 date is important because that was the first day airlines could reduce the number of workers under the terms of a $25 billion federal loan and grant plan designed to protect airline payrolls. Earlier this summer, Spirit secured more than $330 million in assistance from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The pullback of layoffs does not mean, however, that the airline will operate a full complement of flights out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and other cities come Oct. 1.

Although the airlines have taken extraordinary measures to keep their work forces intact, public health fears and government restrictions have kept millions of travelers from flying since March. That resulted in the grounding of planes and the suspension of flights around the nation and abroad. According to Airlines for America, an industry trade group, traffic will be down 60% for 2020 from the previous year.

Massive cuts set at American

On Tuesday, American Airlines informed its work force of 140,000 worldwide that reduced passenger traffic caused by the pandemic would force management to slash 19,000 jobs starting in October as the airline moves to cut its head count to 100,000.

There was no immediate word on what types of service cutbacks are in store for travelers using Miami International Airport, where American operates a major domestic and international hub.

“We have come to you many times throughout the pandemic, often with sobering updates on a world none of us could have imagined,” wrote American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and its president, Robert Isom, in a companywide note announcing the cuts. The note accompanied a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Today is the hardest message we have had to share so far — the announcement of involuntary staffing reductions effective Oct. 1,” the note said.

The furloughs affect 17,500 union workers, including flight attendants, pilots and mechanics, as well as 1,500 administration and management jobs.

Other airlines have warned about job cuts.

Delta Air Lines, which is in the midst of contract talks with it pilots, announced on Monday it intends to furlough nearly 1,950 pilots unless a deal containing cost cuts is reached.

United Airlines has said it will lay off more than 500 workers in Florida as part of a plan to cut 36,000 people companywide.

According to ALPA, more than 11,000 airline pilots in the U.S. have received notices of potential furloughs.

Dozens of other pilot groups under the union’;s umbrella are exploring ways to preserve as many jobs as possible until the industry recovers.