Several thousand former unionized flight attendants at defunct Spirit Airlines have asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court to pay them millions, alleging management failed to notify them of layoffs on time under federal law and their labor contract.
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Separately, a South Florida employee who lost his job with a contract ground services firm that did work for Spirit has sued his former employer on similar grounds: that it failed to provide adequate notice that the employee would lose his job.
“The Debtor’s failure to provide its AFA-represented employees with advance notice of their layoffs created substantial hardships,” according to a motion filed on behalf of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on May 23.
“When they went to sleep on May 1, 2026, the Debtor’s employees reasonably expected they would wake up on May 2nd and continue their employment with the income and benefits their jobs provided to support them and their families,” the motion adds. “Instead, Spirit shut down overnight, stranding flight attendants who were away from home, working trips. The next day, rather than showing up at the airport to fly people all around the country, flight attendants found themselves unemployed with no income or health insurance.”
The court filings are the latest allegations brought by employees who assert they were unaware their jobs were coming to an end on May 2, the day the Dania Beach-based carrier stopped flying and closed its doors for good.
The financially troubled discount airline had been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since August 2025, and announced it would seek to exit the court proceedings at some point this summer. Then, the U.S.-Israel war broke out against Iran, driving fuel prices higher and forcing management to seek emergency financial help. Negotiations with private lenders and the U.S. Government for a last-ditch bailout failed to produce a deal, forcing the business to abruptly close.
That is the explanation management gave to some 17,000 workers who were instantaneously terminated after financial rescue talks failed. While those critical negotiations were under way, the company has said, it was not in a position to declare it would eventually fold and lay off thousands.
Under federal law, according to employment law firms, there is a “faltering business” exception for delaying termination notices. But the exception is narrow.
Spirit filed its notices two days after the shutdown.
‘No excuse’
According to a motion filed May 23 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, there was “no excuse” for a late filing either under federal law or its labor agreement with Spirit on behalf of 4,735 union members.
The law, the motion asserts, required Spirit to provide 60 days’ notice in advance of the job terminations under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
“Debtor’s operational closing on May 2, 2026 constituted a plant shutdown and/or a mass layoff, for purposes of the WARN Act,” the court motion says. “As such, Debtor was required to provide 60-days advance notice of the employees’ impending terminations. Debtor did not provide the required advance notice to the employees of their impending layoff. It only provided notice after it had already terminated its AFA represented workforce. Debtor may not avail itself of any affirmative defense under the WARN Act because it should be deemed procedurally barred due to having only provided notice after-the-fact and because it does not properly fit under any recognized exception.”
According to the filing, the amount of money Spirit owes the AFA-represented attendants amounts to 60 days’ worth of pay and benefits for the airline allegedly violating the WARN Act. In addition, the company owes money for allegedly violating its labor agreement with the flight attendants, according to the court motion.
The union’s calculations stack up this way:
- Back pay: $30,894,170.40, based on the attendants’ average hourly wage of $45.31/hour.
- Health insurance: $8,911,649 for loss of benefits.
- Collectively-bargained right to advance furlough notice: $15,447,085.20. “Because the Debtor did not provide advance notice of the furloughs, it is liable to pay the affected employees for at least 30 days’ worth of pay,” the motion asserts.
“Even if an argument could be made to excuse or reduce the Debtor’s liability under the WARN Act,” the motion adds, “such an argument would not affect Debtor’s independent liability” under the labor agreement.
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New York attorney Charles Rubio, who filed the bankruptcy court motion for the attendants, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Spirit ground service contractor sued
The flight attendants’ May 23 motion followed an adversary filing with the bankruptcy court in mid-May on behalf of a half-dozen ex-Spirit employees who also alleged WARN Act violations.
Shortly thereafter, a third legal action appeared in Miami federal court on behalf of a man employed by a Spirit contractor. In his case, which seeks class-action status, it is a Spirit contract firm, not the airline, which is named as the defendant.
Rony Almeida worked at Orlando International Airport as a guest service agent for Miami-based Alliance Ground International (AGI), an airport services contract firm that counted Spirit as a customer in Orlando and at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
AGI workers including Almeida handled a variety of tasks around airports for Spirit, according to a complaint seeking class-action status filed in U.S. District Court in Miami. Those jobs included areas such as cargo, logistics and baggage.
As a contractor for Spirit, the lawsuit asserts, AGI should have known that the airline was a company in distress.
But AGI laid off workers who performed work for Spirit when the airline closed, giving no notice beforehand, the suit says.
“AGI had access to information regarding the financial condition and operational status of its airline customers, including Spirit, and knew or should have known that Spirit’s repeated bankruptcy filings … and operational distress threatened the continued employment of AGI employees assigned to Spirit-related work,” the lawsuit alleges. “Spirit’s financial instability and risk of operational collapse were not sudden, unexpected, or unforeseeable events. Rather, Spirit had been in severe and publicly known financial distress for an extended period preceding the May 2, 2026 layoffs.”
Plaintiff attorney Marc Wites, who is based in Lighthouse Point, believes “there are several hundred more [workers] at least around the country” whose situations are similar to Almeida’s.
“Based on our investigation they were working for Spirit at multiple locations,” he said. Wites is representing Almeida with the Boca Raton firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd.
A spokesman for the private equity firm Lone Star Funds, which acquired AGI in March, did not respond to a request for comment.
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