Spirit Airlines Begins Cancellations in Preparation for Strike

I work in the regional airline industry as a pilot and I do know pilots quitting. They are returning to previous jobs because they were paid and treated better than in the airline industry. One third of our first officers are collecting welfare to keep food on the table. Think about that when you gripe about saving 9 more dollars on a ticket. Most of the savings have been at the expense of the people flying you where you want to go. Wouldn't that put a smile on your face.

We routinely work 12 to 14 hr days, the numbers (no more than 8 hour days) management tells you in interviews is flight time, which is the only time that produces pay for the crews. We spend 30 to 45 minutes getting the airplane and paperwork ready for flight, and spend about 15 after we get to the jetway shutting it down and finishing up the paperwork.

Fatigue sneaks up on you. Most of the pilots don't realize it till too late. Usually the last leg or two. This isn't the feeling tired but the catching yourself head bobbing or waking back up (sometimes it is the other pilot shaking you).

This isn't an office job were you can perform at 80 or 60 percent. You have to be 100 percent, anything less can be the cause of a catastrophe. You can't just pull over once you notice you are too tired.

The purpose of regional airlines was to get expenses down by using airlines with lower safety standards. Getting away from the major airlines with the pilot unions contracts that provide more of margin of error for safety.

WHO FORCED THESE PEOPLE TO BECOME PILOTS ANYWAY? Did someone hold a gun to their head and make them pay for all their flying lessons and flight time to become a pilot? Did someone make them work for low wages until they built up their seniority? Please tell me who forced these pilots into such horrendous conditions and low pay? And if they are lacking in free will to choose another profession, then maybe we don't want them in the cockpit. Who forces these people into such bad working conditions and doesn't give them a CHOICE to make a career change?

I NEVER, EVER, met a pilot who didn't love his job, mets LOTS of them who didn't think they were paid what they were worth, but NEVER met one who wouldn't choose to become a pilot again. And I never met one who said "I'm giving up being a pilot, I'm going to be an accountant." My neighbor was a pilot, kept his plane at the ranch next to ours, was a Captain for AA. Only allowed to fly 3 days a week, the rest of each week he could choke chickens if he wanted to. Tough life. A years pay for 5 months actual work.

HEY- IF YOU DON"T LIKE YOUR JOB, or the pay associated with it, you have a choice to get out, you have a choice to make a career change, who is preventing you from doing that? Of the universe of people who have made career changes when they weren't fulfilled mentally or financially, it seems only pilots have not figured this out yet. This mentality of entitlement for being there is ruining the country. We hire people who have little or no experience in the selective field we work in, and in two weeks they think they should have top level pay just for showing up, even though we are investing in training them to be somewhat productive. No gratitude for a job and compensation, just feeling entitled to have what experienced people have without contributing anything.

And for those who mention the Colgan Air disaster, if those same pilots were paid $200,000 a year, would it have made a difference in their experience level at that moment, and the decisions they made? That's a regulatory issue to require more experience in the cockpit, the government let them get away with hiring inexperienced pilots without enough time on the logs to ferry the public.

FREE CHOICE folks, if you don't like your job, there are plenty of other fields out there, no one is forcing you to stay with your job. If you're that unhappy with your job and compensation, no one is making you stay.

As the facts unfold, we will all have a better idea of what is controlling the Spirit controversy. The privately held airline entity wise means no public stockholders..just private investers. As said yesterday, if the execs are greedy the airline will fail. The pilots have chosen to walk out to protect themselves and without them, there is no airline. The costs nowadays of running any business are beyond comprehensible and much of those operating costs cannot be controlled. If all investers and pilots alike are eating cold cereal then that is the reality and Spirit will fail unless they work together to solve and wait it out..but if "greed" is the motivating factor then the low-cost airline will learn a very hard lesson....the pilots are their life blood... and without them..Spirit is gone.

Scared to Death. I didn't even mention the checkrides, in addition to phase check, new equipment and route transitions etc. Airline Transport rating holders get a physical every 6 mo., and until recently you lost your job, no matter, what at age 60-now 65. Funny, you said Easter, I almost used Eddie R, instead of Roscoe T. Met Capt. Dick Merrill once, the Wings of Man pilot in the tv ad series. First airline flight was a 727 "Whisperjet", PIT-MIA. I know a guy in Fla now who lost his EAL Capt job on 1011's and took a bad financial hit to go to charter flying. Fine airline.

I want these guys paid well, because I want the best doing the job. I look for gray hair also. The kids move up too fast. Hopefully the age 65 rule will help a little. The Colgan co-pilot had no icing experience according to her conversation minutes prior to the crash. Air Florida, now a much different Air Tran, hit the bridge departing DC--crew had no icing experience. Is this what you want flying you? Most private, instrument rated pilots have icing experience. But you don't get it when you go through an accellerated course in Florida or Arizona. In fact, you're hard pressed to get experience flying in actual cloud conditions. I've known pilots who got instrument ratings in these schools who have never been in a cloud.
Yep, give me Sullenberger, or Al Haynes, pilot in the Sioux City crash, who flew a DC10 with the "can happen" situation of zero controls. Watch "High and the Mighty". It's not so far from the truth. The young people haven't had time to do enough "hangar flying" to learn the what if's.

What would happen if we decided to pay doctors $22,000/yr? Some of these pilots make less than that and there was a time, not so long ago, when they had to PAY the airline to take their course in order to get hired at $15,000/yr. No wonder the Colgan Capt was working two jobs.

I think the FAA is going to fix some of this. New experience rules are in the pipeline right now.

I flew Spirit once and never again! The seats are so narrow all the men on the aisle seat had their legs out in the aisles. I was lucky to get an aisle seat ( had to pay $5)The guy by the window in my row had his legs numb and cramp up due to tight spaces. They charge for soda($2.00), snacks $2+. They charge you for your seat assignment when you book the flight and choose a seat ($5.00 up to $50. The flight cost me more overall than Jet Blue (couldn't get a JB flight that day) and the only thing that was positive was the employees. They were attentive and kind. But as far as comfort goes,forget it! The flights they advertise as $9 winds up costing you $95 if you are not a member ($39 a year) with taxes and hidden fees. As for hidden fees I would never fly with an airline that charges for carry on ($45.00). What next? $5 to use the restroom? $2.50 for breathing the air?

I would rather fly on what was MCMillar Airlines
of northern Australia on board an airconditioned
F27 Friendship with a hot meal from Darwin to Perth
in one day. Wonderful desert crossing flight.

To "Scared to Death" Airline pilots must take physicals every six months. Not too many jobs where every six months you can loose your job.

turn it around. You want to go shopping at Kmart yet demand the service of Saks fifth avenue? The airlines is the only place that people shop for the lowest possible price yet demand the exact same treatment as if they had paid for a full priced ticket.

You want pilots with the same skills and experience as other airlines yet you want them to work for less than bus drivers.

I WOULD NOT FLY THIS AIRLINE IF IT WAs free..
about 5 years ago..there bag handlers stole $3,000
in jewerly out of my suitcase and i got $300.
stay away ..they hure theives

I WOULD NOT FLY SPIRIT IT WAS FREE...ABOUT 6 YEARS AGO A BAGGAGE HANDLER STOLE $3,OOO.FROM MY BAG AND I GOT $300.00 STAY AWAY THEY HIRE THEIVES