When Spirit Airlines closed before dawn on May 2, pilot Steve Giordano's work was just beginning.
Giordano, managing partner of Nomadic Aviation Group, told CNBC that he organized a massive repossession of more than 20 Spirit planes that lessors wanted returned to them.
In just over a week, he said he and his team transported 23 Spirit planes from airports across the country to the Arizona desert. Just hours earlier, those bright yellow Airbus planes had carried Spirit customers.
Giordano, who runs Nomadic with co-founder Bob Allen, was starting to hear late on the morning of May 1 that his team would be working soon. “We finally pulled the trigger to start moving crews at 6 p.m.” on May 1, he said. Spirit closed at 3 a.m. ET the next morning.
So nomadic and contract pilots, some of whom previously flew for Spirit, began ferrying the plane west without customers on board to special airports. outside of Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, where they will be stored for now.
Retired or disused aircraft are often parked in the desert because the climate reduces the risk of corrosion or other damage. Airlines parked thousands of them there when travel collapsed due to the Covid pandemic.
Recover planes
An Airbus aircraft retired from Spirit Airlines in Coolidge, Arizona, in February 2023.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC
Nomadic organizes everything from getting fuel for the planes it flies to ensuring planes have the necessary inspections and crews for flights.
Unlike an airline that has a large staff of dispatchers, mechanics and pilots, “when you're on a mission like this, there's a lot more responsibility in terms of accomplishing the mission,” Giordano told CNBC. “To be honest, the easy part of this is flying.”
Nomadic is an aviation specialist. The company frequently transports aircraft to new customers around the world. On rare occasions, the company's job also means repossessing planes for leasing companies or other owners when an airline goes into liquidation.
“It's certainly the least frequent type of operation we do,” Giordano said.
Major airline closures in the United States are rare and Spirit's collapse was the largest in decades. Earlier this month, Spirit began the lengthy process of dismantling the discount company in bankruptcy court.
Part of that liquidation process involves returning the planes to the lessors, which is where Nomadic Aviation comes into play. According to a court filing, Spirit had 114 Airbus A320 planes and 66 of them were leased.
Giordano said he was so busy before a Spirit recovery flight that he forgot to eat.
“When I got on the plane, I thought, 'Oh no, I'm really hungry and there won't be any options until we get to Arizona,'” Giordano said. “One of the mechanics said, 'Hey, all the carts in the kitchen are full.' So I had all the normal spirit snacks. I think I had some Milano cookies. … I had a couple boxes of cheese snacks. It was basically free and unlimited.”
Not everything was free, like Wi-Fi.
“I had to pay for it, but it worked,” he said of the Spirit plane he transported from Philadelphia International Airport to Pinal County Airport in Marana, Arizona.
In demand
A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 parked at New York's LaGuardia Airport days after the airline ceased operations.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC
It's unclear where each plane that was part of Spirit's fleet will end up. The airline had already reduced its fleet in recent years and cut routes to save money.
Engines that were not part of a major Pratt & Whitney recall that grounded Spirit planes and hit the airline years before it filed for bankruptcy could be in high demand.
A Pratt & Whitney PW1127G engine was selling for about $14.5 million in January, up from $11.3 million three years earlier, according to aviation consulting firm IBA Group.
Shortfalls in the supply chain since Covid have driven up the value of second-hand parts, none more valuable than engines, although there are hundreds of components that make up an aircraft and can be sold.
“The engines that were operational will be very welcome,” said Stuart Hatcher, chief economist at IBA. “Delivery time to stores is probably almost double what it should be.”
Giordano, who lives not far from the Philadelphia airport, said it was “surreal” driving to work to get the last Spirit plane out of that airport.
“This is the last time this will happen and I happen to be flying in it,” he said.
