In what should be good news for cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages, Spirit Airlines and its pilots have reached a tentative agreement which, according to the airline, will allow its planes to start flying again as of Friday, June 18th.
Spirits planes have been grounded since its pilots walked out on Saturday over a pay dispute. The agreement is subject to a back-to-work agreement, final language, and union membership approval. 26 hours of straight negotiation took place prior to this agreement being reached.
The head of Spirits pilot union was quoted saying that the pilots are more than willing to assist the company in getting itself back together and fully operational as soon as we possibly can.
Spirit cancelled its Thursday flights prior to this agreement being reached. Before the strike Spirit had announced that it would continue to fly during a pilot strike. The airline was unable to do this and its customers were left to fend for themselves with limited ability to use their Spirit tickets on other airlines. Many Spirit passengers paid hundreds of dollars to fly on other airlines, or rent cars to get to their final destinations.
Airline strikes rarely occur in the U.S. because of strict federal regulations created to keep planes in the air. The last strike of a major airline was a Northwest mechanics walkout in 2005.
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