Spirit Airlines - the good, bad and ugly

[Starshipper]

Hi everyone - just wanted to find out about terms and conditions at Spirit Airlines. I followed a Spirit MD-80 out a few days ago and the pilot sounded happy... Of course, I suppose anyone with A JOB in the airline business nowadays should be happy.

Questions for either Spirit pilots or people in the know:

1. Is Spirit hiring? Typically onto which aircraft - DC-9 or MD-80?

2. What is like to fly for Spirit - how is morale, etc.?

3. I am familiar with impending expansion out of Ft. Lauderdale to Caracas, San Juan, Santo Domingo, etc. - sounds like a lot of upcoming expansion. Any talk about how many pilots may be needed?

4. What types of pilots have been hired recently - military, regional? Do you need a type on the MD-80 to be competitive?


Thanks for the info. Appreciate any sincere comments about what it is like to fly for Spirit - the good, bad and the ugly....


Cheers

 

[General Lee]

Good question Starshipper! I see those guys all of the time, and they seem happy. They are expanding a lot---kinda like your HEAD! Why don't you take it to the crapper---you DUMASS!

PS. I really do like those Spirit guys and girls!


Bye Bye------General Lee

 

[King Nothing]

General Lee, what's up with that? I think Starshipper asked some good questions.

KN

 

[habubuaza]

Yeah, am I missing something here?

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Our airline is based in YIP, with a lot of guys that live in the Detroit area, which is one reason A LOT of them go to Spirit. We are called "Spirit West" because we are west of DTW. I think in Sep 3 or 4 (& we only have about 70 pilots) left for Spirit. If they were bad, this would not be occuring, as we have guys that go to all the majors, including SWA.

Cliff
GRB

 

[SWA/FO]

General Lee = TOOL

Spirit is a fine airline with a lot of great folks. Cliff is talking about USA JET as "Spirit West".

I'd say that Spirit is hiring Pilot's with all backgrounds. They use to love getting ahold of USA Jet DC-9 drivers. Many were hired in as Capt. qualified FOs.

Lately, they are looking to hire displaced ALPA brothers/sisters from other carriers. (Such as Delta)

(Cliff - how are things going at JUS? Send me an email)

 

[frenchy]

We are based in DTW and FLL your chances of beeing on the DC9 are slim to none, more likely the MD 80, we are not hiring until probably next year when our contract will be implemented.
The schedule is very good "99%" of our days are 2 legs a day, easy to commute, the Co is like a big family.
The one thing we had to work on was the pay scale and that will be done by Feb next year.
Our maintenance is quite good, and we are expecting to be receiving some new airplanes by the end of 2003,(boeing 737-900 most likely).
We have a cocktail of pilots we different backgrounds, Spirit will hire you if you have the right attitude and are willing to adapt to our culture without the relentless (in my old Co that's the way we use to do it).
I hope that helps.

 

[Starshipper]

Frenchy,

Thanks for the response - everyone, with the exception of General Lee, has been very helpful. I like the idea of maybe working at a "family-style" operation like Spirit's - and I have heard that before about Spirit.

Flying the MD-80 would be fine by me - it's a great airplane. Of course, I will need to get more hours and experience to be competitive - especially in this market... I'd love to fly the 737-900 - that would be awesome. I have flown on Continental 737-900s before and they were impressive - very, very long.


Any other Spirit pilots out there with comments or opinions about your operation? Thanks

 

[General Lee]

"Well I, Guess I'm out of my league here...."--Ace Ventura

I am so so sorry Starshipper-----Take it easy now, ya hear?

Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Saabslime]

Who the hell is this general munkeyspunk anyway?? Can't believe he made it through even the worst of HR departments.

 

[General Lee]

Come on guys, can't you take a joke? Lighten up a bit.

Maybe I know Starshipper personally? Hmmmmm? Relax.

Saabslime-----easy there fella.

By the way, I do know some Spirit guys and they enjoy their jobs. They are expanding like crazy, like the new DEN-FLL routes.
It will be interesting how they react when Delta brings in their new LCC to the East Coast with single class 757's. (Expect an
announcement the Monday before Thanksgiving---atleast that is what we have heard)

Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[King Nothing]

Glad to see you were joking General Lee. Thanks!

KN

 

[Starshipper]

Looking forward to some new comments/opinions related to Spirit if there are any out there...

Thanks

 

[Tailwheel]

Spirit expansion? Not really...

I'm a two year FO with Spirit and honestly, it's a good little company. Still 30 airplanes, 28 MD80's, 2 DC-9's. The 9's stay in ACY party due to operational considerations and the charters they still run. The 9's went senior recently due to the ACY pilot base closure. Some of the more senior guys left the MD80 to fly the 9 just to stay in ACY.

We haven' really expanded in terms of airplanes or pilots, just cities. For example, we just started LAS in July from DTW and will operate an additional flight during the day. Plus, we will start LAS from ORD soon. We also fly to DEN. But, with the addition of these new routes and cities, we have also lost some routes...for instance LGA to RSW and some other Florida cities from LGA. So it might seem like we're expanding like crazy, but not really.

 

[cl65@350]

i know this has probably been covered but i am too lazy to do a search...but could one of the spirit drivers post bases and starting pay...when you say commutable...how many days off a month (avg) for a line holder??

thanks

 

[Tailwheel]

In the past, we've gotten 15-17 off on average. There were however some lines with 18 and 19 days off in recent months. For this December, there were, I think, 3 or 4 lines with 18 off (out of 31) a few with 17 and the rest 14, 15 or 16...a pretty good spread.

As for bases, just two: well three. Two MD80 bases: DTW and FLL. The DC9 base, ACY, is very small with only two airplanes. The MD80 part of the base closed 6 months ago with no rumors of reopening. Seems silly because our loads out of ACY are huge. All the service is still there, just no 80 base. This is a true niche for Spirit.

Starting pay isn't great. First year for me was $37.17 based on a 72 hour guarantee, and I only pulled reserve one month. After the first year the increase is very small, a dollar or two. Upgrade has typically been 2-3 years but now who knows. The prospect of more or new airplanes is encouraging but hasn't happened yet. They are considering the MD90's as an transitional airplane for some of the longer hauls and places where more performance has been necessary (LAS, DEN)

Couple of great things about Spirit are the days off blocks. Our contract minimum number of days off in a row is 4. Anytime you're off, it's for at least 4: Not even United or Southwest can say that. This makes commuting a lot easier though the lines recently haven't been real commutable. Also, there's plenty of overtime to be had if you want it paid at time and a half. So my $40 bucks an hour turns into $60 an hour for overtime trips. Typically I can pick up three or four xtra days a month which makes quite a difference.

No news about hiring. We have run a few classes since the disaster but word is nothing til next year. Spirit overall is a pretty good place, good bunch of people from diverse pasts. It's not uncommon to see a 30 year old Captain and a 50 year old FO. It's a young pilot group and with four back-end FA's, there's plenty of opportunity to get into trouble on Florida or Las Vegas overnights.

 

[a320drivr]

Spirit

Im not so sure Spirit can afford the B737-900

 

[enigma]

From Starshipper, "1. Is Spirit hiring? Typically onto which aircraft - DC-9 or MD-80?"

No, not into either, although the DC9 is senior because of its ACY base.

"2. What is like to fly for Spirit - how is morale, etc.? "

Good Question. We are in contract negotiations and some are optimistic, others are ready to recall the representitives (small minority).

"3. I am familiar with impending expansion out of Ft. Lauderdale to Caracas, San Juan, Santo Domingo, etc. - sounds like a lot of upcoming expansion. Any talk about how many pilots may be needed?"

No expansion. The South America stuff has been being dangled for years.

"4. What types of pilots have been hired recently - military, regional? Do you need a type on the MD-80 to be competitive?"

Any time in in a DC9 (DC9-80 is the same type) is very helpful. The only recent hires were either previous Spirit pilots who had moved on to greener pastures and gotten furloughed post 9/11, or other furloughees from other airlines. Spirit probably has a smaller group on a percentage basis, of military pilots than any other airline.

"Thanks for the info. Appreciate any sincere comments about what it is like to fly for Spirit - the good, bad and the ugly...."


Comments, we are working for 1990 charter wages. That's both bad and ugly. We are working , that's good. Sadly, ownership seems to want to take the 9/11 tragedy as an excuse to paint us into a corner on wages and work rules. I don't know if he is just an opportunistic businessman, or if he really thinks he can continue to pay MD80 Captains less than $80 per hour ( and FO's less than $40 per hour. I hope that he understands that we are grossly underpaid and that it will take more money to to keep us working. If not...........either the MEC gets recalled, or we walk. If the MEC agrees to a status quo contract, this will be a very poor place to work. Moral will be low and the backbitting will be ugly.


From a320driver, "I"m not so sure Spirit can afford the B737-900"

If rumors are true, the airline pays a lease (to the airlines owners for the 80's they own. It's amazing how well you can hide things when you own things under a sole proprietorship) that would just about pay for a new Boeing. All rumors of course, If I had any inside info I'd be in management and sitting home for the holidays instead of sitting in base waiting for the phone to ring.

regards,
8N

 

[enigma]

i know this has probably been covered but i am too lazy to do a search...but could one of the spirit drivers post bases and starting pay...when you say commutable...how many days off a month (avg) for a line holder??

thanks

Bases are ACY, DTW, and FLL in seniority order. ACY is senior because it is quite small and only flys 4 DC9's; everyone else is based in DTW and FLL.

It's been a while since I started, but I'm pretty sure that first year pay is $37/hour with a guarantee of 72 hours.

Commutable: depends upon your idea of a commute. Some commute offline from the west coast and the northwest, others think that the commute from the NY area to south Florida is unacceptable even when able to get the cockpit jumpseat. I personally think that the lines are commutable, but not as good as some other airlines.

Line holders are guaranteed 13 days off and the lines usually range between 17 and 14 days off. Reserve lines get a guaranteed 12 days off and always work 18 days. We have a 4 hour daily guarantee, so the company makes a reserve work 4x18 to equal the 72 hour monthly guarantee. Our contract currently requests that the company build lines with 5 day off blocks and requires no less than 4 off days in a row.

Our work rules are quite good. Assuming that our negotating committee doesn't allow any slippage in the ongoing renegotiation, we quite possibly could have some of the better work rules in the business. Now it we could just accomplish a 100% pay raise.

regards,
8N

 

[Intruder One]

To Starshipper:

Why don't you try Jet Blue,I saw another post where one of their Capt's had only 3000hrs I see you have 2500+ you may be a capt like him in a few short months..you never know.