Spirit Airlines planes are headed for the desert, led by repo pilots

When Spirit Airlines shut down before dawn on May 2, pilot Steve Giordano’s career was just beginning.

Giordano, managing partner of Nomadic Aviation Group, told CNBC that he has organized a major recall of more than 20 Spirit aircraft that the instructors want to return.

In just over a week, he said he and his team moved 23 Spirit planes from airports around the country to the Arizona desert. A few hours earlier, those bright yellow Airbus jets were flying Spirit customers.

Giordano, who runs Nomadic with co-founder Bob Allen, first heard on the morning of May 1 that his team would soon be operating. “We finally pulled the trigger to start transporting workers at 6 pm” on May 1, he said. Spirit closes at 3 am ET the next morning.

So Nomadic and charter pilots – some of whom had previously flown for Spirit – began flying to the West with no customers boarding at special airports. except for Phoenix and Tuscon, Arizona, where they will be stored for now.

Retired or unused aircraft are often parked in the desert because the weather reduces the risk of rust or other damage. Airlines parked thousands of them there when travel was disrupted by the Covid pandemic.

Travelers organize everything from getting fuel for the flights to making sure the plane has the necessary inspections and crew.

Unlike an airline that has a large staff of dispatchers, mechanics and pilots, “when you go out on a mission like this, there’s a lot of responsibility in terms of getting the job done,” Giordano told CNBC. “To be honest, the easy part of this is the flying part of it.”

Nomadic is an aviation expert. The company often transports aircraft to new customers around the world. Infrequently, the company’s work also means returning aircraft to leasing firms or other owners when the airline runs out of business.

“It’s definitely an unusual type of operation that we do,” Giordano said.

Major airline shutdowns in the US are rare, and Spirit’s decline was the biggest in decades. Earlier this month, Spirit began the lengthy process of winding up the discount carrier in bankruptcy court.

Part of that shutdown process involves returning the planes to the lessees, which is where Nomadic Aviation comes in. According to the court report, Spirit had 114 Airbus A320 aircraft, and 66 of them were leased.

Giordano said he was so busy before one Spirit return flight that he forgot to eat.

“When I got on the plane, I was like, ‘No, I’m really hungry and there won’t be a choice until we get to Arizona,'” Giordano said. “One of the mechanics said, ‘Hey, all the garage cars are full.’ So it had all the usual snacks for Spirit. I think I have cookies in Milano. … I had a few boxes of food and cheese. It was free and unlimited.”

Not everything was free for the taking, like Wi-Fi.

“I had to pay for it, but it worked,” he said of the Spirit flight he took from Philadelphia International Airport to Pinal County Airport in Marana, Arizona.

It is not clear where each plane that was on Moya’s ship will end up. The carrier had already downsized its fleet in recent years and cut routes to save money.

Engines that weren’t part of Pratt & Whitney’s massive recall, which grounded Spirit jets and crippled the airline before it filed for bankruptcy, could be in high demand.

The Pratt & Whitney PW1127G engine was worth about $14.5 million in January, up from $11.3 million three years earlier, according to aerospace company IBA Group.

Supply chain shortages since Covid have driven up the prices of used parts, none more important than engines, although there are hundreds of parts that make up an aircraft and cannot be sold.

“The engines that have been working will be very welcome,” said Stuart Hatcher, the IBA’s chief economic officer. “Turnaround time in stores is probably twice as close as it should be.”

Giordano, who lives near the Philadelphia airport, said it was “surreal” driving to work to pilot the last Spirit flight out of that airport.

“This is the last time this will happen, and I’m flying it,” he said.