The airline blames the Airline Pilots Association for the cancellations in a statement. The violence, which was a culmination of some 300 flight cancellations and delays since last week, went viral online and drew a public rebuke from Florida's Senior U.S. Sen. Watch the full video here: Long lines formed after the cancellations, and some customers became irate. United's image took another blow when a giant rabbit died as it awaited a connecting flight in Chicago.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which the airline sued along with the 11 Spirit pilots, disputes this and says it and the captains and first officers are not "engaged in a job action". A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday ordered the aviators to temporarily halt "any form of interference" with airline operations and scheduled a hearing for May 15. "It's convenient, but when you only have one airline, when that flight cancels, your day is done".
The shares fell 3.6 percent to $55.39 at 11:11 a.m.in NY after falling as much as 5.4 percent for the biggest intraday drop since August 2.
The Monday evening incident erupted after Spirit Airlines abruptly canceled nine different flights, according to CBS News. "These pilots have put their quest for a new contract ahead of getting customers to their destinations and the safety of their fellow Spirit team members".
The airline says that by allegedly making concerted efforts to refuse last-minute shifts and "junior assignments", members of the union are violating the Railway Labor Act, which set up a series of procedures created to prevent work stoppages from disrupting the US transportation system.
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But she congratulated Mr Macron on beating Marine Le Pen, an outspoken opponent of the European Union, in the weekend's election . The law was passed without a vote in the parliament, which Macron defended from criticism of being anti-democratic.
The airline won a federal court order on Tuesday ordering the union to have its members again start flying their normal allotment of flights.
"We are disappointed that ALPA has chose to engage in this unlawful slowdown", Spirit spokesman Paul Berry said.
Airline analyst Robert Mann said it doesn't take many pilots calling in sick or refusing to accept extra shifts for Spirit or any airline to find itself in the position of having to cancel numerous flights.
Spirit Airlines has seen a sharp decline in the number of pilots picking up "open time" - i.e., trips that are not assigned in the initial pilot scheduling process and are typically covered by pilots looking to work a few more hours to make some extra cash. She said conditions were "awful" and "horrible".
The union did not respond to a PR Daily request for comment before our deadline landed with a thump on our editorial runway.
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