Spirit flight attendants protest at Las Vegas airport
Spirit Airlines flight attendants held a protest at Harry Reid International Airport Friday morning following recent mass cancellations of Spirit flights across the nation.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA organized the protest at Reid’s Terminal 1 on Level 1 outside in the sidewalk area starting at 8 a.m. A similar picket was held outside of Orlando International Airport in Florida earlier in the week.
Roughly a dozen protesters held signs in the passenger drop-off area of Terminal 1, chanting and holding signs as cars drove by. One sign said “Low Fares. Low Wages. Low Morale – Spirit Airlines,” and another said “Stranded for three days without a hotel and no answers.”
Jasmine Lopez, a Las Vegas-based flight attendant for Spirit for six years and a local union leader.
“We are picketing today to raise our voices and to say that enough is enough,” Lopez said. “We need to stop stranding our passengers and our crews.”
Lopez said a week ago Spirit Airlines canceled just over 30 percent of flights in “for the fourth time since August.”
Lopez said the flight attendants have the same frustrations and concerns as members of the public who have been on canceled flights.
“Each time that this happens we are stranded without answers, dealing with rightfully angry passengers and stuck in airports overnight,” Lopez said. “Often times our flight attendants don’t even have hotel rooms.”
The union said in a statement that a similar protest unfolded in Orlando, Florida, earlier this week.
“With staff shortages already straining the system, Spirit Airlines does not have the staff to quickly recover from mass cancellations and delays, which leaves Spirit flight attendants burdened with picking up the pieces,” the union said.
“Empty promises from Spirit management ‘to do better’ will no longer suffice,” the union said. “Flight attendants will not be silent and standby.”
A Spirit Airlines spokeswoman later issued a statement on the protest in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“We are grateful for our incredible Spirit Family, and we’re committed to finding ways to better support our Team Members and address the issues of most importance to them,” the statement said. “We’ve been through so much together throughout the pandemic, and we are committed to making the necessary investments to build a stronger and more resilient airline for both our team members and guests. “
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.