Layoff season is here – first Microsoft, then TCS and now Spirit Airlines – though this one is on a temporary basis. The airline is planning to furlough 270 pilots and demote more than 100 others – 140 to be precise – this year. Spirit Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection last November and emerged in March, is now adjusting to a reduced flight schedule. This is reportedly the third round of workforce reduction by Spirit since September 2024.
Third workforce reduction in a year
According to Reuters, 270 pilots will be sent on a temporary unpaid leave from work from November 1, and 140 will be demoted from captain to first officer from October 1. However, the company has not specified when the furloughs will end.
The airline is doing it to rebrand itself as a premium airline from a low-cost carrier, which doesn’t provide perks and benefits like other carriers. It is also reducing the workforce to align the staff with the flight schedule.
‘There’s no dressing that up’
“We know how hard this news hits, and there’s no dressing that up,” Captain Ryan Muller, who is also the chairman of the Spirit unit of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), was quoted by Reuters as saying.
He added, “Spirit continues to shrink, and with it, the value of pilot seniority and Spirit careers continues to erode.”
In a statement to CNBC, the airline said that it is doing so to find financial footing: “We are taking necessary steps to ensure we operate as efficiently as possible as part of our efforts to return to profitability.”
The company added that it will treat all the affected employees with “compassion and respect”. “We recognise the weight of this decision and are committed to treating all affected Team Members with compassion and respect during this process,” the statement added.
More tea on Spirit
There was a planned $3.8 billion merger between Spirit and JetBlue. However, a federal judge blocked it due to antitrust concerns, and the companies mutually ended it in March 2024. It then filed for Chapter 11 protection in late 2024. A $350 million equity infusion from bondholders, part of the bankruptcy restructuring, helped it improve its financial health. It came out of bankruptcy in March this year, per a USA Today report.
In June 2025, the airline urged the Transportation Department to block a proposed partnership between JetBlue Airways and United Airlines, which it called “anti-competitive”. As part of the deal, the customers could book flights on the websites of both carriers and also earn and use points interchangeably between their frequent flyer programs.
Spirit argued that it would encourage other carriers to do the same.