Spirit Airlines on Tuesday won a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit against the union representing its pilots, which the company said had coordinated a work slowdown that set off chaos at a Florida airport.
The Fort Lauderdale airport north of Miami regained its calm Tuesday afternoon, following a night of clashes between Spirit employees and frustrated passengers stranded at the terminal due to flight cancellations.
Three people were arrested.
"We sincerely apologize to our customers for the disruption and inconveniences they have suffered," Spirit spokesman Paul Berry said in a statement.
"We believe this is the result of intimidation tactics by a limited number of our pilots affecting the behavior of the larger group."
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, accused the Air Line Pilots Association of coordinating a "pervasive illegal work slowdown" in order to "pressure Spirit in its current collective bargaining negotiations."
Since last Thursday some 300 Spirit flights have been canceled -- 15 percent of the airline's offerings -- with some 20,000 impacted passengers in cities like Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Las Vegas and Detroit.
Spirit said in the suit it has lost $8.5 million.
The federal order issued Tuesday will force the pilots to normalize operations. A hearing for a preliminary injunction is slated for May 15 in a Florida court.
The union said pilots would "fully comply with the order handed down, which is completely in line with our overriding goal: the resumption of normal operations."
"We call on the company to join forces with ALPA and the Spirit pilots to do just that."
The chaos was the latest instance of airlines dealing with high-profile customer frustration.
Problems began last month with mobile phone video capturing a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight.
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Other horror stories from customers surfaced later involving flights on Delta and American airlines.
Deputies arrested three people from New York in the Fort Lauderdale airport, charging them with inciting a riot, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and trespassing.
Jennifer Glann said at the airport Tuesday that she was in the crowd Monday night, trying to get home to New Haven, Connecticut. She said conditions were "awful" and "horrible."
"There was nowhere to stand, nowhere to sit," she said. Employees were forcing people to go outside, she said. Soon, scuffles started.
"People were getting arrested left and right."
Paul Yankowitz of Newark, New Jersey, said he tried to remain calm as the crowd became enraged. He didn't think the cancellations were worth getting angry about.
"It sucks but like anything else in this life, life is short and you can't get stressed," he said.
