FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Spirit Airlines is canceling all flights through Tuesday, stranding thousands more passengers as a pilot strike continued into its second day. þþThe carrier said on its Web site on Sunday that all Spirit Airlines flights had been canceled through Tuesday. Spirit pilots walked off the job Saturday amid a contract dispute that has lasted more than three years. Spirit pilots have said their pay lags behind that at competitors like AirTran Airways and JetBlue. þþ“None of the planes are moving, and none of our pilots have crossed the picket line,” Paul Hopkins, strike committee chairman of Spirit’s unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, said Sunday. þþThe airline, privately held and based in Miramar, Fla., carries 16,680 passengers a day — about 1 percent of the total in the United States — mostly between the eastern United States and the Caribbean and Latin America. Spirit’s chief executive, Ben Baldanza, said this weekend that no talks were scheduled with picketing pilots. þþThe shutdown continues to cause major problems for Spirit’s fliers. The airline said it was refunding fares for flights Saturday through Tuesday and offering a $100 credit toward future flights. Spirit is also trying to book its passengers on other airlines. þþBut people who needed to replace their Spirit tickets found the cost of same-day fares on other airlines was two to three times as much as they had paid. þþTim and Dana Wells spent the last week on a cruise ship and did not hear about the strike until a taxi dropped them off at the Fort Lauderdale airport on Sunday morning. þþMr. Wells, 40, frantically searched his laptop for a flight home to St. Joseph, Mich. The couple eventually found flights home for nearly $1,300 — almost $1,000 more than their original tickets. þþFort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is Spirit’s hub, where it is the only airline to 14 international cities and five United States destinations, an airport spokesman, Greg Meyer, said. Around the country Spirit runs roughly 150 flights a day. þ
Source: NY Times
