Spirit Airlines pilot strike strands thousands

JOSHUA FREED and TRAVIS REED My Way News 06/12/2010 17:53

A strike by Spirit Airlines pilots shut down the discount carrier on Saturday, stranding thousands of travelers. Spirit carries roughly 1 percent of U.S. air passengers, mostly between the eastern U.S. and the Caribbean and Latin America. It's a small carrier but its shutdown was causing major problems.

Spirit's tickets aren't good on other carriers. The airline said it was refunding fares for Saturday flights plus a $100 credit toward future flights. It didn't immediately announce plans for its Sunday flights.

On Saturday, new, same-day tickets on other airlines were at least two- to three times the fares originally booked on Spirit.

That was out of the question for Junior Elliott, a 67-year-old mason from St. Ann's parish in Jamaica, who was stranded in Fort Lauderdale while traveling to New York for a cousin's funeral.

Elliott was unable to buy new tickets until his fare was refunded to his debit card. He had no cell phone, no U.S. currency, and nowhere to sleep but the terminal's seats.

"It's bad now, man," Elliott said. "I can't even buy a cup of coffee."

From Fort Lauderdale, Spirit is the only airline to 14 international cities and five U.S. destinations, said Greg Meyer, the spokesman for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Spirit carries more than 16,000 passengers a day, many of them through that hub. Around the country Spirit runs roughly 150 flights per day.

The carrier and its pilots have been in negotiations for more than three years. Spirit pilots have said their pay lags competitors such as AirTran Airways and JetBlue.

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