Spirit Airlines is cutting approximately 200 jobs across its organization as the financially troubled budget carrier works to reduce expenses following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in November.
“These decisions were not made lightly, as we know they impact professional and personal lives,” wrote CEO Ted Christie.
“As you all know, we’re facing significant challenges with our business, which is why we’ve been focused on taking actions to optimize our organization and create more efficiencies. The bottom line is, we need to run a smaller airline and get back on better financial footing.”
At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Spirit employed around 13,000 individuals, with roughly 84% of them represented by unions, according to court filings. The latest job cuts, targeting nonunion positions, are part of Spirit’s strategy to achieve $80 million in cost reductions.
Spirit Airlines“With all of those actions, coupled with this week’s reductions to our workforce, we’ve now reached the $80 million cost-savings target,” Christie added in his memo.
Based in Dania Beach, Florida, Spirit previously took measures such as furloughing hundreds of pilots and offering extended voluntary leaves of absence to flight attendants to help lower expenses. The airline has also scaled back its flight network and sold portions of its Airbus jetliner fleet to generate cash.
Spirit’s financial difficulties have been exacerbated by multiple factors, including the collapse of its planned merger with JetBlue due to antitrust concerns raised by a federal court. Other challenges include a Pratt & Whitney engine recall and a spike in labor costs in the wake of the pandemic.
Despite these hurdles, Christie noted that Spirit remains on track to emerge from bankruptcy later this quarter.
