On Tuesday video footage of fights breaking out at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport began to go viral as passengers grew angry after their Spirit Airlines flights were canceled.
According to NBC News, the cancellations were caused due to a current disagreement between the airline and the Air Line Pilot Association. Pilots are seeking better contracts as they claim the current ones are below “industry standards.”
On Monday Spirit Airlines reportedly filed a lawsuit against the ALPA, alleging that the pilots are participating in a “pervasive illegal work slowdown” and also causing “irreparable harm to [Spirit’s] goodwill with its customers.”
According to the lawsuit, due to the disruption, there have reportedly been 300 flights canceled since the beginning of May and 81 flights were canceled on Sunday.
Spirit Airlines spokesperson, Paul Berry said, “This is a result of unlawful labor activity by some Spirit pilots designed to disrupt Spirit operations for our customers, by canceling multiple flights across our network. These pilots have put their quest for a new contract ahead of getting customers to their destinations and the safety of their fellow Spirit Team Members.”
Captain Stuart Morrison, the head of the Spirit Airlines unit in the ALPA responded and said, “Spirit pilots are not prepared to embark on the fool’s errand of accepting substandard pay and retirement based on the unenforceable hypothesis that the Company may grow more quickly. Our ‘peers’ throughout the industry have uniformly and properly rejected agreements based on that theory.”
Passengers shared their experiences within the Ft. Lauderdale airport after their flights were canceled, which led to tensions rising.
Brionka Halbert, a Spirit passenger said, “Everyone was stressed. They asked us to take out our boarding passes and be ready. Then about 20 minutes after that, they told us the flight was canceled. They sent us to the front desk so that we could either change our tickets or have our tickets refunded.”
Spirit Airlines is reportedly the airline with the most cancellations worldwide.
