The Miami Herald is reporting this morning that privately held  Spirit Airlines may lay off or displace as many as 60% of its flight attendants and 45% of its pilots in two months.

The low-cost airline, which is struggling to cope with rising jet-fuel prices, sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or “WARN” letters to union leaders late last week, informing them of the decision, the Miami Herald’s web site is reporting.

The carrier stated that it would furlough or displace up to 448 flight attendants and 242 pilots on Aug. 1. The airline plans to close its New York LaGuardia, San Juan and Detroit bases and reduces its Fort Lauderdale base, according to the report.

Spirit would not confirm the exact effect the layoffs would have on flight numbers, the report said.

‘Everybody is shocked,” Sean Creed, chairman of the Spirit Airlines pilots union is quoted as saying in the article. Creed, who is based in Fort Lauderdale but lives in Connersville, Ind., continued,  “We had a meeting [May] 21st with the company, when they gave a completely different impression of the state of the industry as far as Spirit Airlines is concerned.”