Flight Attendants Furloughed as Spirit Strike Enters Day 5

Flights canceled through Thursday, no word from Tuesday's negotiations

Over 650 Spirit flight attendants have been furloughed by the airline as the pilots' strike entered day five Wednesday.

Flights for the low-cost carrier remain canceled through Thursday as the pilot's union, the Airline Pilots Association met Tuesday with Spirit representatives in an undisclosed location to negotiate.

The fact that flights haven't been canceled past Thursday could be good news that a deal is close, but that didn't make things any easier for the hundreds of flight attendants now temporarily out of work.

"You think, 'Do I have a job, do I have a place to go to work, how am I going to pay my bills?'" said Jason Meyer, with the Association of Flight Attendants.

Meyer has been with the Miramar-based airline for five years, and said his union firmly supports the pilots' fight.

"We have been in the mediation process for the past several years and it has been very slow and unfruitful," Meyer said.

According to the airline, their last offer of a nearly 30 percent pay raise was turned down by the pilots earlier this week.

"That 30 percent will still keep us below our peers' pay scale, and the 30 percent that they have offered does not kick in until the last year of the contract," said Captain Frank Hann, a striking pilot at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Airport officials said the loss of the approximately 10,000 Spirit passengers who pass through there each day is hurting their bottom line to the tune of about $40,000 lost each day.

"Seeing our airplanes sitting there, it's like a sense of a cemetery just with no movement and literally dead," said Meyer.

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