Spirit Airlines deals to end pilots strike

Spirit Airlines made a deal with its pilots on Wednesday that will end their strike, and the airline said it would fly again starting Friday.

The strike won’t officially end until pilots sign a back-to-work agreement, the union said.

“I think our people will be more than willing to assist the company in getting itself back together and fully operational as soon as we possibly can,” said Sean Creed, a Spirit captain and head of the Air Line Pilots Association unit there.

Spirit had already canceled its Thursday flights before the agreement was reached. Before the strike, Spirit had said it intended to fly through any job action.

That didn’t happen, and many of its customers found themselves stranded with limited ability to use their tickets on other airlines.

Many paid hundreds of dollars to fly on another carrier or rented cars to get where they were going.

Spirit has 28 departures a week at McCarran International Airport in June — less than 1 percent of the 3,252 weekly departures.