Workers say mass Spirit Airlines layoffs violate federal law

By Michael Carroll | Legal Newsline
The Center Square

Six former Spirit Airlines employees, including five Florida residents, have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the Florida company’s worker layoffs violate a federal law mandating a 60-day notice prior to such terminations.

The laid-off employees filed the litigation May 12 in the federal bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York, accusing the no-frills carrier of sending a mass email to employees earlier this month without the proper advance written notice required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, or the WARN Act.

“We filed on behalf of all 17,000 people who lost their jobs on May 2,” the lead attorney in the case, Eric Lechtzin, told the Florida Record. Lechtzin indicated that the next step in the litigation would be to review the response of Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., which had been the seventh largest airline in the nation.

Lechtzin said the plaintiffs are seeking the maximum damages available under federal law. The lawsuit says employees are owed wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay and accrued vacation pay for 60 days, as well as compensation related to lost health insurance coverage and retirement plan contributions.

Such compensation should have been provided in accordance with the WARN Act, which covers mass layoffs or plant closings, according to the complaint.

The class action was filed in New York because that is the venue where the airline, which is based in Dania Beach, Fla., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Spirit has provided low-cost air travel around the United States as well as Latin America and the Caribbean since 1992.

The complaint points out that Spirit has sought the court’s permission to pay retention bonuses to designated workers who opt to remain with the airline during its “wind-down process.” Specifically, the airline wants permission to pay $10.7 million to non-executive employees. It also expects to pay three unnamed senior executives an undisclosed amount during the phase-out of the company, according to the lawsuit.

“It is reasonable to infer from this failure to identify any sum of money or the expected recipients of those sums that the amount is in the millions of dollars for each of these senior executives,” the complaint says.

Last year, the airline paid retention bonuses to senior executives amounting to millions of dollars. The payouts included $2.9 million to CEO David Davis; $1.2 million to Fred Cromer, the chief financial officer; and $1.1 million to John Bendoraitis, the company’s chief operating officer, the complaint says.

The lawsuit points to company communications to employees that urged them to ignore rumors the carrier was on the verge of dissolution and that provided assurances immediately before the May 2 shutdown announcement that normal operations would continue.

“The announcement stated that employees would be paid ‘for hours worked through May 2, 2026,” the complaint states. “However, to date, employees have not received their final paychecks, accrued vacation time or unused sick time.”

The legal website Findlaw.com reported that Spirit filed for bankruptcy protection in 2024 and 2025 and that rising aviation fuel costs prompted by the war with Iran put the company in greater danger of going under.

The number of direct and indirect employees living in South and Central Florida impacted by Spirit’s bankruptcy proceedings number more than 4,800, according to the Orlando Sentinel.