DANIA BEACH, Fla. — Henry Fernandez, the senior pastor at The Faith Center, a Christian church in Sunrise, said he used to work as a flight attendant.

Fernandez, formerly of New York, co-founded the church in 1991 at the former Sunrise Musical Theater at 5555 NW 95th Ave.

It’s there, he hopes the community will come together to help as many former Spirit Airlines employees as possible.

“No one is exempt from these issues,” Fernandez told Local 10 News. “Some of us are just one day, one year, one month away from being unemployed.”

The church has been preparing to host “Opportunity Day,” a job fair and a complimentary lunch.

“I think our job is hopefully, at the end of the day, if not all of them, most of them can say, ‘Yes, I lost my job at Spirit Airlines, but it was an opportunity,’” Fernandez said.

The “Opportunity Day” is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 30. For more information or to join the effort, call the church at 954-742-7832.

LOCAL LAYOFFS

With more than $2.5 billion in losses since 2020, the bankruptcy filings followed in 2024 and 2025, and the shutdown was on Saturday after a last-minute $500 million government bailout failed.

“We have 18,000 people that live in this country that are great people and great employees,” President Donald Trump said about Spirit Airlines employees nationwide on April 23 at the White House.

Spirit Airlines filed the layoff notices on Monday with the FloridaCommerce, the state’s lead agency for workforce, and reported laying off more than 4,850 employees in Florida.

That included more than 3,260 layoffs in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. There were 2,529 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 551 at the Spirit Support Center in Dania Beach, and 181 at Miami International Airport.

Related document: Notice of layoff (May 2-13)

Florida Commerce on Spirit Airlines layoffs

Helpful link: Spirit Airlines restructuring page

Related stories

Upcoming job fairs

Miramar is hosting a job fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 20 at the Miramar Cultural Center, at 2400 Civic Center Place. Admission and parking are free. For more information, visit the Evenbrite page.

The Port Everglades Career Fair & Expo is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 27 at the Broward County Convention Center at 1950 Eisenhower Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Admission and parking are free. Here is a list of the participating companies >

Resources

Broward County has four Family Success Centers to help with housing and utilities.
Department of Labor: Rapid response services includes guidance on COBRA continuation coverage
American Airlines launches “Supporting Spirit” career page
United Airlines launches program to prioritize former Spirit Airlines employees when hiring. Here is the career page >
Southwest Airlines was recruiting on this page.
JetBlue’s jobs page
JetBlue announced an extension of the “jumpseat agreement for the next two weeks, subject to space availability and limited to cabin seating” for those who were stranded while working for Spirit Airlines, and also announced “preferential employment interviews.”
Delta releases statement of help
For more information about help from the Association of Flight Attendants, call 1-800-385-3920
CareerSource Broward offers services such as job placement and career coaching at three centers at 4941 Coconut Creek Parkway, 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard, and 7550 Davie Road Extension in Hollywood.
Employ Miami-Dade has services for job seekers.
CareerOneStop has a database for job centers
To file an unemployment benefits claim in Florida, call 1-800-204-2418 or visit this page.
Find your local food bank, on this Feeding America page

Christian church moves to help former Spirit Airlines employees

Upcoming job fairs

Resources

About The Author

Andrea Torres