Spirit Pilots and Management at Issue over Flying

Spirit pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association are calling ‘foul’, alleging that they are being forced to fly longer hours internationally over those agreed to in the contract. They say the practice is being used to make up for staffing shortages and that they are not being compensated appropriately. They say Ft. Lauderdale-based Spirit Airlines committed 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 stepped up to help the company with a concessionary contract in 2003. At that time the company said that 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. According to the Spirit ALPA unit, now, in the face of its self-inflicted 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. The union says Spirit management is also circumventing the union and its contract on the domestic front by trying to persuade Spirit pilots 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 allegations come as Spirit pilots continue to negotiate a new contract.