The collapse of Spirit Airlines is costing more than 4,000 Floridians their jobs, according to new state filings.
The displaced workers include 2,529 employees at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 796 employees at the Orlando International Airport, 551 employees at the Dania Beach Support Center and 181 employees at the Miami International Airport. Spirit disclosed the job losses to FloridaCommerce in new WARN notices.
The low-cost airline announced it was going out of business last week as Spirit canceled flights, stranding passengers, and laid off thousands of workers abruptly.
The WARN notices don’t provide details on the employees’ positions, but the layoffs are immediate.
“We regret that we are not able to give you more notice of your layoff,” Spirit Human Resources Vice President Suzanne Solon wrote in the WARN notice filing.
The company had been trying to negotiate a buyout with President Donald Trump’s administration to save the airline. Spirit blamed “recent dramatic and sustained deterioration in business conditions” in explaining why it was forced to close.
“These conditions — including war in the middle east and a massive run up in fuel prices that will cost US airlines billions of dollars this year — were not foreseeable by the Company, and developed with a speed and severity that precluded the Company from giving earlier notice as we fought to save Spirit,” Solon wrote in the WARN filing.
To help displaced workers find jobs, FloridaCommerce, the state’s economic development bureau, is hosting an event 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday at the CareerSource Central Florida Southeast Orange Career Center, 5784 Semoran Blvd. in Orlando.
Spirit filed the WARN notices to disclose mass layoffs at its Florida operations in a state where tourism is king and home to some of the country’s busiest airports.
Some officials are voicing concerns about Florida’s employment numbers even before the Spirit layoffs.
“Florida’s jobs numbers continue to get worse. Unemployment shot up to 4.7% — higher than the national average. Florida lost almost 38K jobs year over year in March,” former Governor and current U.S. Sen. Rick Scott wrote on social media last week.

