Former Spirit Airlines employees face paycheck delays, scarce job market weeks after shutdown

The Spirit Airlines gate sits empty inside Terminal 4 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

It has been nearly three weeks since the airline shut down operations, and hundreds of employees say they are still waiting for their last paycheck.

"At first they said that we weren't going to get paid, then they said that we were going to get paid, then they said we don't know," said Mauricio Valencia.

Valencia was a flight attendant with Spirit Airlines for nearly five years. He described the job as a lifestyle and said the transition has been tough.

"You're constantly traveling, you're always working," Valencia said. "Now it's like you're waiting, I wish I had somewhere to go, and it hasn't been easy".

Valencia has been applying online and attending job fairs, but said flight attendant jobs are scarce. He was recently turned down by Frontier because they had too many applicants, he said.

"All these aviation companies, it's great what they're trying to offer us, but how are you going to get a flight attendant to go from flight attendant to an aviation mechanic?" Valencia said.

Melanie Hymers spent the last 13 years as a flight attendant with Spirit.

"Flight attendant jobs are incredibly difficult to find. United did open an application, and I think they had about 5,000 applicants just in a 24 to 48-hour period," Hymers said.

Hymers is now hoping a passion she shares with her daughter, Dorian, will help her bring in some money by starting a series of children's classes called "Pollinator Playhouse".

"It is teaching pollination and the importance of pollinators in South Florida to children and their families," Hymers said. "The main purpose is to inspire children to be curious, especially about bugs, because I've met so many kids who have been scared of them."

Both Valencia and Hymers said the camaraderie and outpouring of support from the community have helped make the sudden change a little less turbulent.

"A lot of us, we are glad that we are supporting each other, we have a lot of support groups we're always chatting," Valencia said.

The job fair for affected Spirit Airlines workers is scheduled for Monday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Miami International Airport, North Terminal, 4th Level, Concourse D auditorium. Registration for the event is available online.