Spirit Airlines plans to start training new pilots and flight attendants early next month as the budget carrier sets aside to return to travel after the pandemic.
“We’ll be a big hirer again,” CEO Ted Christie said Thursday. “Growth in the airline industry is going to be at the leisure end, and we’re the primary server of that guest.”
Christie said the airline plans to hire more for other positions this year as well. Spirit last trained a group of new pilots in May and new flight crews last February, a spokesman said.
The carrier declined to say how many employees it plans to add this year. It ended last year with 8,756 employees, including 2,497 pilots and 4,028 flight attendants, according to a securities filing.
The airline also calls back other employees who took leave, programs that helped avoid involuntary furloughs of unionized workers, who make up the bulk of its staff. Some of those employees, like pilots, will also need to meet federally mandated training requirements before returning to the job.
“Our training footprint can only handle so much, so it has to be phased,” Christie said of the company’s hiring plans.
Spirit lost $ 428.7 million by 2020, its first loss a year since at least 2007, according to FactSet data. U.S. airlines combined lost more than $ 34 billion last year as a result of the COVID pandemic, which officials call the most serious problem in the industry.
Spirit, like others, now hopes that the issuance of policies will help revive the renewal of the air movement. The airline expects to return to its 2019 volume levels by mid-year, it said.
“Vaccine deployment, lowering total Covid case numbers should lead to more confidence from the traveling public and a loosening of restrictions,” Christie said.
Changes will take time.
Spirit and other airlines have seen a weaker than expected demand as Covid charges increased late last year and early 2021, as well as a slow start to the distribution of the vaccine. New travel restrictions such as Covid testing requirements for international airlines, to the U.S, they also hurt booking.
Cowen & Co. airline analyst Helane Becker forecast Spirit’s first-quarter revenue will be down 46% compared with pre-pandemic levels and estimated a deeper per-share 2021 loss than previously expected, partially due to higher costs associated with “preparing operations for growth during the recovery.”
Spirit stocks fell more than 8% on Thursday to $ 30.01, but its stock price has risen by about 23% this year, above most U.S. airlines.
Late Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee advanced a proposal for $14 billion in additional federal payroll support for airlines, which have already received $40 billion from the government during the pandemic to pay workers. The new round of aid would require airlines to keep employees through Sept. 30 and would be a part of the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
Labor unions, American Airlines and United Airlines have supported another round of aid as the threat of new furloughs looms for up to 27,000 employees when the current package runs out after March 31.
When asked whether he supports additional aid even though the airline is hiring, Christie said: “Our industry needs to be fair in all cases, so there can’t be selective aid. To the extent that the government does decide to either extend the existing program or modify it, then I think it is to be expected that all airlines would be a beneficiary there.”
