The management of Miramar-based Spirit Airlines, the largest carrier flying out of Fort Lauderdale airport, and its pilots, reached an agreement on Wednesday that will enable the airline to resume service on Friday.

The pilots had been on strike since June 12 when talks between them and the airline’s management broke down and Spirit’s representatives of the Airline Pilots Association ordered the strike.

The airline’s management had decided to offer the pilots an incremental salary increase, but they wanted their salaries to be in line with pilots of other discount airlines. The salary negotiations had been ongoing for the past three years.

A Spirit pilot told the National Weekly that he had over eight years commercial flying experience and has been flying with Spirit for almost three years, yet his relative with only three years flying experience, who flies for Jet Blue, was earning about 15 percent more than he was. “That can’t be right,” said the pilot. “Other discount airlines are in the same business as Spirit, so Spirit salaries should be competitive with these airlines.”

As the strike pursued, with no resolution evident, Spirit’s management cancelled flights through to Thursday, inconveniencing thousands of its booked passengers.

On Tuesday the National Mediation Board stepped into the fray to bring a resolution to the impasse. A deal was reached between the parties on Wednesday afternoon.

It has been reported that the pilots still have to sign a back-to-work agreement before the strike officially ends. Up to press time, this agreement was not signed. Until it is signed, the exact details of the salary agreement between the pilots and the airline’s management will not be released.

In a press release issued shortly after the strike began, Spirit’s management said it had offered its pilots a 30 percent pay increases amounting to $70 million over five years, plus a $3,000 signing bonus for each pilot. In that release, Spirit’s President and CEO Ben Baldanza said he was “frustrated and disappointed” over the action taken by the pilots.

With the strike threatening to loom for days, on Wednesday the airline announced that it was placing the airlines 600 flight attendants on furlough. However, most of the flight attendants, who also have ongoing salary negotiations with the airline, said they were supportive of the pilots industrial actions.

The settlement of the strike should be good news to passengers who fly on Spirit’s 150 flights in and out of Fort Lauderdale Airport, including to Caribbean destinations. The airline had quickly initiated a program to refund booked passengers for their tickets, along with a $100 credit for future flights, but passengers who tried to get seats on other flights had to pay out of their own pockets. Some passengers complained that they had difficulty getting through to the airline’s reservation line to get refunds for their tickets.

Airlines like Air Jamaica/Caribbean Airlines and Jet Blue benefited from the strike, since their Fort Lauderdale representatives reported being bombarded by stranded Spirit passengers booked for Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

Baldanza apologized to Spirit customers for the inconveniences caused by the five-day strike. On the airline’s website on Wednesday night, it offered $50 discounts for new bookings made by midnight on June 18, and offered 5,000 bonus miles towards frequent flyer rewards.

It was reported that during the course of the strike, the Fort Lauderdale Airport lost some $40,000 daily from fees that would have been customarily paid by Spirit.