various positive statements<\/a> about its prospects amid media reports that its end was near.<\/p>\n(Article continues after document.)<\/p>\n
April assurances<\/p>\n
\u201cAs recently as April 16, 2026, Spirit had advised its employees that it planned on continuing operations and that they should ignore the rumors that Spirit was near a termination point,\u201d the suit says. \u201cPlaintiffs and other similarly situated employees were reassured by Spirit and its senior executives, including Davis, through this statement of confidence. Spirit continued to disseminate positive misleading statements to employees and others, assuring them that normal operations would continue in the hours immediately prior to the announcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The suit asserts that Spirit workers were \u201centitled\u201d to advance written notice of their impending terminations 60 days ahead of the shutdown. That meant that under the federal WARN Act, the notices \u201cshould have been delivered to the workers [and others required by law] on or around the week of March 4, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spirit, in its WARN notice filed with the state after the shutdown, said it had good reasons to delay word of its possible closure: The airline was still negotiating with its lenders and the U.S. Government for more financial help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIssuing a notice would have materially and adversely impacted\u201d the airline\u2019s ability to raise capital, a company official said in the filing.<\/p>\n
In a note to employees that was attached to the WARN notice, Spirit said: \u201cWe regret that we are not able to give you more notice of your layoff. We were not able to do so because the company was actively seeking capital to avoid these layoffs and closures, and notice would have precluded the company from obtaining the capital needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retention bonuses<\/p>\n
The suit also takes issue with the company\u2019s request of the bankruptcy court to approve millions in retention bonuses for senior executives and others to help wind down the airline\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
After its efforts to reorganize failed, the suit asserts, \u201cSpirit pivoted to a wind-down, shut down operations, and proposed retention and bonus programs to maintain a skeleton workforce and compensate remaining employees during liquidation. Spirit requested authority to pay up to $10.7 million in retention bonuses to non-management employees. Spirit also sought approval of a revised, one-time retention bonus plan specifically for three unidentified senior executives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Company statements filed with the court indicated the airline still needed up to 130 people who were familiar with Spirit\u2019s operations to help complete the process of closing the business.<\/p>\n
No hearing on the proposed class action has been set by the bankruptcy court as of late Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spirit Airlines\u2019 abrupt shutdown this month was too abrupt under the law, a group of terminated employees allege…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,558,8904,28,29,249,251,250,114,266,115,109],"class_list":["post-270017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-business","tag-dania-beach","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Spirit](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778709189_479_tfl-l-spirit-airlines-shut-down-010.jpg\")
Idled Spirit Airlines planes are shown at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 2 after the airline shut down. A lawsuit filed by ex-employees alleges they are still owed pay and benefits. (Mike Stocker\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n