In a statement released on Wednesday, Spirit also said Frontier and JetBlue are being given access to the same due diligence information, after JetBlue’s CEO Robin Hayes previously criticized the airline over not “acting in good faith” during the negotiations.

Seeing pay up to 70 per cent higher than before, the two airlines – Envoy Air and Piedmont Airlines -will become the highest paid regional pilots in the US.  

In an internal briefing, CEO Jozsef Varadi said that “we are all fatigued” but it is “required to take the extra mile" amid ongoing aviation challenges.

On Wednesday, workers from Ryanair, Malta Air, easyJet, Volotea and Crewlink that are members of Uiltrasporti (Italian Union of Transport Workers) and Filt Cgil (Italian Federation of Transport Workers), joined a four-hour national strike from 10am to 2pm.

In a statement on Monday, the Long Island-based airline said it was enhancing its reverse-breakup fee that will be paid to Spirit shareholders in case the deal falls through and fails to win regulatory approval to US$350 million – US$3.20 per Spirit Share – up from its original price of US$200 million.

In a statement released on Monday, the union, which has over 1.4 million members, is asking check-in staff to join the ballot in a bid to reverse a ten per cent pay cut that was made early in 2020. The workers “are angry” because the company has already restored management’s pre-pandemic pay.