Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Flight attendants protest Spirit’s cancellations
Claim airline leaves crew without lodging after disruptions
Passengers aren’t the only ones with airline gripes. Flight attendants say they, too, are feeling the pain of widespread delays and cancellations.
Unionized attendants at Spirit Airlines demonstrated outside their airline’s terminal at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Tuesday to protest management’s handling of flight delays and cancellations,
Waving yellow signs with black lettering — the colors of their company’s aircraft livery — about a dozen members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA asserted that crew members are often left with long waits at airports and no lodging after their flights have been canceled.
The demonstration came as the Federal Aviation Administration and representatives of various airlines serving Florida prepared to meet to discuss flight disruptions caused by bad weather and air traffic control issues that have been blamed for thousands of cancellations and delays at airports statewide since last year. Spirit says it is among the participants planning to attend, along with JetBlue Airways and American Airlines, among others.
The attendants hope a resolution comes quickly.
Outside the Spirit terminal on Tuesday, Don Intreglia, vice president of the master executive council for the airline’s attendants, said the company “had another operational meltdown” over the weekend, which he said, “left flight attendants and passengers completely stranded for days on end with no answers, no hotel rooms.” It was the fifth such spate of delays and cancellations since August.
“This is an industry issue across the board,” he said, “but airline management continues to leave us stranded” when flight disruptions ripple across the carrier’s system. He said flight attendants are among the first Spirit employees to absorb the wrath of passengers whose travel plans are derailed.
A Spirit spokesman did not directly address the attendants’ complaints, but issued a statement saying the company is “committed to finding ways to better support our team members and address the issues of most importance to them.
“We’ve been through so much together throughout the pandemic, and we are committed to making the necessary investments to build a stronger and more resilient airline for both our team members and guests,” the statement said.
FAA, airlines seek answers
It was not immediately clear what types of remedies the FAA has in mind when it convenes with airline executives whose companies serve Florida.
“The FAA will host a two-day meeting with airlines this month to discuss ways to increase the efficiency of the existing airspace structure,” the agency’s Atlanta office said in a statement forwarded to the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. “In recent months, a number of factors have contributed to increased congestion in the already busy airspace.”
They include “a higher number of operations in nearby military airspace, more frequent thunderstorm activity across the peninsula, as well as a stepped-up cadence of space launches.”
The agency also noted the delays come at the time that the number of flights scheduled for the state’s busiest airports “has rebounded to well above pre-pandemic levels.”
It listed 11 Florida airports, including Miami International Airport, Fort Lauderdale Executive and Palm Beach International Airport with flight increases exceeding 100% over 2019.
The number of rocket launches from Cape Canaveral on the state’s east coast also is increasing, “and is expected to double this year.”
“The combination of these factors leaves little margin for the system to absorb flight delays, particularly during periods of peak travel demand, such as weekends and holidays,” the FAA said.
Intreglia, the union leader, said he’s not certain the strategy of flight cutbacks employed by some carriers including Spirit is making much of an impact toward stabilizing the system.
“There are too many flights, even though they’ve pulled some of that flying down,” he said. “Every time they feel like they have a grasp on the operation, they increase flying and we run into the same problems.”