Spirit Airways plans crew base in United stronghold Houston, its third new outpost in 5 months

Spirit Airways mentioned Tuesday it plans to open a crew base at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, a United Airways hub, the newest growth because the discounter plots progress at massive airports.

Miramar, Florida-based Spirit in March introduced crew bases at Delta Air Traces-dominated Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport and American Airways hub Miami Worldwide Airport.

Spirit says it plans to have 150 pilots and 300 flight attendants primarily based in Houston, beginning this fall. The service and its rivals have been scrambling to employees as much as meet sturdy journey demand and enhance reliability. Final summer season, Spirit mentioned 1000’s of flight cancellations over a 10-day stretch price it about $50 million.

Establishing a crew base in Houston, the place it at the moment averages 22 departures a day, would imply employees who dwell within the space would not should commute from one other metropolis, a typical apply in aviation.

Spirit mentioned it could open a upkeep facility in Houston. It already has a upkeep facility in Detroit. The service is scheduled to finish 2022 with a fleet of 197 Airbus narrow-body jets, after getting 24 new planes this 12 months.

The brand new base comes amid a bidding battle for Spirit. Fellow finances service Frontier Airways and Spirit introduced plans to merge in February, however JetBlue Airways swooped in with a rival all-cash takeover bid in April.

Whereas Spirit repeatedly rebuffed JetBlue, the airline has struggled to achieve shareholder assist for the Frontier mixture, in accordance with Frontier, and has postponed an investor vote on that deal 4 occasions to proceed talks with each carriers, an indication that the Spirit-Frontier deal is underneath menace. It most not too long ago scheduled a vote for July 27.