A plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport.
The pilots at Spirit Airlines haven't taken a stance on the future of the carrier, but they don't like what they've seen.
Ryan Muller, chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association's chapter of Spirit, wrote a letter to members on Wednesday saying he was concerned that the company wouldn't raise pilot wages over the next five years. There are about 3,000 pilots for Spirit.
Muller said he read a filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission which said that the management of the airline did not contemplate a wage increase for team members at a time of high attrition.
The call included members of the leadership of JetBlue and the senior management team of Spirit. He said topics included financial due diligence items. One topic was the proxy statement from Spirit, which focused on unrealistic assumptions, especially with respect to costs associated with personnel attrition and wage inflation.
Muller wrote a letter to Ted Christie, saying that he was deeply troubled by the information, as it appears that either Spirit is not being transparent with its shareholders or it is not contemplating any wage increases for pilots as part of its financial projections.
Ted, I am requesting that you explain the statements that you have made.
They did not reply to the email. The board of directors of Spirit recommends that shareholders reject the hostile takeover attempt by JetBlue. The board supports a merger with Frontier Airlines.
Muller included the text of his letter to Christie in his message to the pilots.
He wrote that he wanted to emphasize that he was completely on board with whether or not the airline pairs with either of the two airlines.
He said that the industry and its shareholders should know what the management has said about the future of the pilot group.
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