‘Our spirit has been taken from us’: Former Spirit Airlines employee fighting cancer faces uncertain future
By Kelsey Jones
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RICHMOND, Virginia (WTVR) — Thousands of Spirit Airlines employees are out of work after the budget carrier ceased operations Saturday, but for Chesterfield native Dante Taylor, the fallout goes far beyond a paycheck.
Taylor, 33, spent seven years as a Spirit flight attendant — a job he describes as more than just work.
“I’ve been doing it for seven years, so just for it to be stripped, basically stripped from me, like, my wings have been clipped, you know?” Taylor said.
Taylor, who worked out of Orlando, was asleep when he received an email around 12:30 a.m. Saturday notifying him that Spirit Airlines would be shutting down at 3 a.m.
“The first line of that email was, ‘We regret to inform you.’ I didn’t even read the rest. It wasn’t a long email. I couldn’t even read the rest. I just broke out crying, and I just, I didn’t want to accept it,” Taylor said.
The shutdown came after years of financial struggles for the airline, including soaring jet fuel costs sparked by the war with Iran and a second bankruptcy filing.
“We absolutely weren’t given enough time. I mean, honestly, I should have saw the signs coming once we entered the second bankruptcy,” Taylor said.
Taylor received no severance pay and no advance warning. The timing is especially difficult — he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and relied on his employer-provided health insurance to cover the cost of cancer treatments. That coverage is now in limbo.
“Hopefully the insurance still works,” Taylor said. “I was able to meet my deductible pretty quick, which is taking care of the medicine, but now it’s like, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to cover that.”
Options like COBRA or marketplace insurance could take weeks to take effect — time Taylor says he does not have.
“So what are we going to do for this month?” Taylor said.
Beyond his health battle, Taylor is also facing mounting financial pressure. He is dealing with medical bills, breaking his lease, moving back home, and searching for new employment.
“This is something that I figured that I would retire from,” Taylor said.
Taylor said he had no idea his final trip on April 29 would be his last when he worked it. Despite everything, he says he is focused on what matters most — his health — even if it means putting his career on hold.
“I will always have my wings, you know, I’ll always feel like a fellow flight attendant. But right now, I’m going to put that on pause.” Taylor said.
As he works to rebuild, Taylor says he is holding onto hope and looking forward to reconnecting with former coworkers he traveled across the country with.
“May we all meet again one day in the sky,” Taylor said.
An online fundraiser has raised more than $2,000 for Dante to help with cancer treatment.
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