A Spirit Airlines plane at New York’s LaGuardia Airport
Leslie Josephs/CNBC
Spirit Airlines is cutting about 200 jobs across the company as the struggling budget carrier seeks to reduce costs after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
“These decisions were not made lightly, as we know they impact professional and personal lives,” CEO Ted Christie wrote in a staff memo, which was seen by CNBC. “As you all know, we’re facing significant challenges with our business, which is why we’ve been focused on taking actions to optimize our organization and create more efficiencies. The bottom line is, we need to run a smaller airline and get back on better financial footing.”
Spirit had about 13,000 employees at the time of its bankruptcy filing, about 84% of them represented by unions, according to a court filing. The job cuts are to nonunion positions and are part of the company’s plan to cut $80…
