DANIA BEACH, Fla. — Milagros De León and William Roman are among the Spirit Airlines employees who were laid off.
They were also among the dozens who put on their Spirit Airlines uniforms to march outside of the company headquarters on Monday in Dania Beach.
“It wasn’t until midnight on Friday night that we learned,” De León said. “When we see the board with no flights for the next day — that we were done for that day.”
Related link: Association of Flight Attendants offers help
There had been hope of a government bailout. On April 23, at the White House, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if his administration had plans to buy “a stake” in Spirit Airlines. Trump said it was under consideration.
“We have 18,000 people that live in this country that are great people and great employees,” Trump said. “We are thinking about doing it ... I’d love to be able to save those jobs. I’d love to be able to save an airline.”
Related document: Airlines For America plan
The $500 million government bailout proposal failed. Dave Davis, the Spirit Airlines chief executive officer, told The Wall Street Journal that the Iran war’s surging energy prices caused the plan to fail.
“We didn’t intentionally sell any tickets thinking we weren’t going to be here,” Davis told The WSJ. “We thought we were going to get the liquidity we needed.”
Spirit Airlines flights were grounded by 3 a.m. on Saturday.
American Airlines and JetBlue Airways were working to help Spirit Airlines pilots and flight attendants who may have been stranded during the shutdown.
De León said she and other employees weren’t expecting any of it.
“We started asking via e-mail, via text, phone calls, and they kept on saying, ‘There’s nothing wrong. Pay no mind. It’s just rumors. We’re fine. We’re going to be fine.’ And so, you know, you trust what management tells you,” De León said.
Related link: Spirit Airlines launches restructuring page
Soon after, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy held a news conference at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
“There’s a demand for aviation workers. So, even American and United have drafted or crafted microsites for Spirit employees to potentially jump the line, jump the queue, and get preferential treatment in the application process for the many airlines that are now hiring, whether it’s pilots, flight attendants, baggage workers or even those who have worked in the call centers. You can go to the individual websites to see what’s offered by each of the individual airlines,” Duffy said.
Trump and Duffy criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration for blocking the $3.8 billion sale of Spirit Airlines to JetBlue in 2024.
Related story: Spirit Airlines asks guests not to go to the airport, or expect rebookings
As the industry faces the fuel crunch from the war in Iran, Roman said anguish prevailed.
“There’s a lot of people that are going to struggle, and there’s no way around that,” Roman said. “There’s just not enough jobs in this industry for the type of work that we do.”
Spirit Airlines employees’ health insurance was cut off on Saturday.
“This is not like any other industry. You do not take your work experience with you. You start right back at the bottom, so if you’ve been here 30 years, it means nothing,” Roman said. “Myself: 10 and a half years, it means nothing. You start right back at the bottom with the lowest pay, lowest seniority.”
Dahlia Fountain spent the last decade flying the skies with Spirit.
“It never felt like work, not once, even when we had delays upon delays, it just felt exciting,” said Fountain.
She says she and other flight attendants learned Spirit was shutting down just like everyone else.
“Then we saw on the news, that before 3 a.m. Spirit will shut down, and we’re like, really?” she said.
Resources
- American Airlines launches “Supporting Spirit” career page
- United Airlines launches program to prioritize former Spirit Airlines employees when hiring. Here is the career page >
- Southwest Airlines was recruiting on this page.
- JetBlue announced an extension of the “jumpseat agreement for the next two weeks, subject to space availability and limited to cabin seating” for those who were stranded while working for Spirit Airlines, and also announced “preferential employment interviews.”
- For more information about help from the Association of Flight Attendants, call 1-800-385-3920
- To file an unemployment benefits claim in Florida, call 1-800-204-2418 or visit this page.
- Find your local food bank, on this Feeding America page
Related social media
— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) May 2, 2026
GoFundMe Pages
Standing with Us in Tough Times organized by William Roman
Apoyo a Empleados de Spirit organized by Milagros De Leon
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