- Spirit Airlines crew slept on airport floors amid operations meltdowns, a union official told The Guardian.
- He said some crew were stranded for up to 30 hours without communication from managers.
- Spirit crew have been protesting staff shortages and flight cancellations.
Spirit Airlines crew have slept on airport floors amid operational meltdowns that left them stranded for up to 30 hours, a union official has said.
"We had flight attendants who were getting kicked out of airports in the middle of the night," Don Reno Intreglia, a Spirit crewmember and the airline's vice president for the Association of Flight Attendants – Communications Workers of America (AFA-CWA) union, told The Guardian.
Spirit crew were stranded away from home with no hotel beds to sleep in, and left for up to 30 hours without communication from their managers, Intreglia told the newspaper.
"It's been horrible on the morale for the flight attendants, because you're sleeping on an airport floor, you've got pretty much nowhere to go," he said.
Intreglia added: "We want the traveling public to know that we're trying to pressure management into making serious changes, so that we are prepared for the summer travel."
Gary Peterson, vice president of the air division at Transport Workers United, told The Guardian: "Sleeping in the hallway at the airport – that never used to happen in the industry, and now it's becoming the new norm."
Labor shortages continue to pose problems for the aviation industry. Airlines have hiked salaries and bonuses in an attempt to lure and retain workers.
The AFA-CWA union told The Guardian that Spirit had suffered four operational meltdowns since August 2021, a number that was much higher than usual.
Spirit flight attendants held protests at airports in Orlando, Dallas, and Las Vegas in mid-April over staff shortages and flight cancellations, which left staff "stranded in airports overnight and oftentimes left without hotel accommodations," according to the AFA-CWA.
Spirit didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.