It seems the troubles are continuing at Spirit Airlines as they are reportedly planning to furlough more than 200 pilots. The Miramar, Florida based ultra-low-cost-carrier (ULCC) has been plagued with issues over the past few months due to issues with its Pratt & Whitney powered Airbus A320s and the subsequent grounding of large portions of the fleet.
Aero Crew News is now reporting, citing the Spirit Air Line Pilots Association’s Master Executive Council, that WARN (Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification) notices have been issued to pilots signaling an upcoming furlough of more than 200. While we can’t access the contents, I did verify that the notice exists on the Spirit ALPA website.
BREAKING
— Aero Crew News (@AeroCrewNews) July 2, 2024
Spirit Airlines just issued WARN notices to pilots, signaling the upcoming furlough of over 200 pilots.
The company's 8K filing has also revealed that the airline simultaneously approved raises for its C-suite executives.
Source: Spirit ALPA MEC pic.twitter.com/C4BNUUuSI6
As mentioned in the above Tweet (sorry, it’ll always be a Tweet), the move comes one day after the airline released its 8K which contains some fairly large raises for executives. This no doubt will rub members of the ALPA the wrong way and they even called this out in the note to members. The full 8K is linked above but the relevant section is below:
“After conducting an extensive benchmarking analysis with the assistance of independent advisers, and in view of the restrictions on executive compensation in recent years due to limitations under the CARES Act and under the merger agreement with JetBlue, the Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors also approved adjustments to other named executive officers, effective July 1, 2024, as follows: (i) for Mr. Ted Christie, President and CEO, annual base salary will be increased to $950,000; (ii) for Mr. John Bendoraitis, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, annual base salary will increase to $650,000, annual target short-term incentive (“STI”) will increase to 100% of base salary, and annual target LTI grant value will increase to $1,500,000; (iii) for Mr. Matthew Klein, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, annual base salary will increase to $525,000, annual target STI will increase to 100% of base salary, and annual target LTI grant value will increase to $1,250,000; and for Mr. Rocky Wiggins, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, annual base salary will increase to $500,000, annual target STI will increase to 80% of base salary, and annual target LTI grant value will increase to $750,000.”
The airline has added a slew of new routes recently and TSA numbers remain high so the grounding and deferral of Airbus aircraft due to the engine issues are the likely culprit here.
Summary
Spirit Airlines is preparing to furlough over 200 pilots based on a memo from the ALPA (the union representing Spirit pilots). The news comes one day after the airline filed its 8K report which outlined large raises for executives. However, many of the issues plaguing Spirit are related to ongoing Pratt and Whitney engine issues.
