Accuse Carrier Of Forcing Additional Hours On Them

Add pilots at Spirit Airlines to the seemingly never-ending list of dissatisfied and disgruntled airline employees. The Spirit pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International, are crying foul on management at the airline, which they say is forcing them to fly longer hours internationally over those agreed to in the contract to make up for staffing shortages, and then not compensating pilots appropriately.

The pilots accuse the Ft. Lauderdale-based airline of committing to flying, that it did not staff itself to perform. As a result, the airline is now attempting to circumvent the pilots' union and make individual arrangements with pilots to perform flying in violation of contractual limits. Vacations have been improperly denied and schedules have been set up which bear no relationship to the actual flying hours that are required.

Spirit pilots offered a concessionary contract to Spirit in 2003, that the union says was designed to allow Spirit to survive and grow. At that time, Spirit demanded Caribbean and Latin American flying be treated as domestic flying, thereby allowing the company to avoid paying international overrides to pilots performing such assignments.

To protect pilots from fatigue, the union insisted that in agreeing with the demands, the company had to follow domestic hours of service rules, which are more restrictive than international hours of service rules. This system has worked for more than three years... but the pilots say that now, in the face of its staffing shortage, Spirit management insists that it can require pilots flying into the Caribbean or Latin America to perform additional flying pursuant to international hours of service rules, but still deny them the international override.

"This is a case of the company wishing to have its cake and it eat too," said Captain Matt Nowell, head of Spirit ALPA unit, "but our pilots are not interested in being played for saps in this fashion and ALPA will fight this absurd violation in every forum necessary, seeking full redress for any member affected."

ALPA also claims Spirit Airlines management is also trying to persuade Spirit pilots -- who claim they already fly more than most legacy carriers -- to risk fatigue by flying more. The Spirit pilots' contract contains specific limits on how many times you can be ordered to fly when you are not scheduled to do so (i.e. junior manned). The company is trying to persuade pilots to circumvent these limits and ALPA by offering pay incentives not negotiated with the union.

"The limits on junior manning -- or forced flying when a pilot is not scheduled to fly -- were put in the contract to assure safety and ensure that we don't have fatigued pilots in the cockpit," said Nowell. "ALPA is instructing its pilots to reject these obvious bribes and put the safety of our passengers above all else. We are committed to providing first rate service to the public. The company needs to address the pilot staffing shortage instead of resorting to these dangerous machinations."

Spirit pilots have been in contract negotiations with the company for more than ten months.

"Spirit pilots call on our management to ignore destructive actions used elsewhere in the industry and focus on running an honest operation that respects its pilots, their families and our union," added Nowell. "It's in everyone's best interest, including our passengers."

FMI: www.spiritair.com, www.alpa.org