Spirit Airlines’ planes are heading to the desert, led by repo pilots

When Spirit Airlines closed before dawn on May 2, pilot Steve Giordano’s work was just getting started.

Giordano, managing partner of Nomadic Aviation Group, told CNBC that he organized a massive seizure of more than 20 Spirit aircraft that lessors wanted returned.

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

Giordano, who runs Nomadic with co-founder Bob Allen, had begun hearing late on the morning of May 1 that his team would soon start work. “We finally pulled the trigger on May 1 at 6 p.m. to start moving crews,” he said. Spirit closed at 3 a.m. ET the next morning.

So Nomad pilots and charter pilots, some of whom had previously flown for Spirit, began flying the aircraft West to private airports with no customers. That’s where they’ll be stored for now, outside of Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.

Retired or otherwise unused aircraft are often parked in the desert because the climate reduces the risk of corrosion or other damage. Airlines parked thousands of passengers there when travel collapsed due to the Covid outbreak.

Nomadic organizes everything from supplying fuel to the planes it flies to ensuring the plane has the necessary inspection and crew.

Unlike an airline that has a large staff of dispatchers, technicians and pilots, “when you go on a mission like this, you take on a lot more responsibility for completing the mission,” Giordano told CNBC. “Honestly, the easy part is the flying part.”

Nomadic specializes in aviation. The company often carries aircraft to new customers around the world. In rare cases, the company’s business also means that when an airline is liquidated, aircraft are repossessed by leasing companies or other owners.

“This is definitely the type of operation we do least frequently,” Giordano said.

Closures of major airlines are rare in the United States, and Spirit’s collapse was the biggest in recent years. Earlier this month, Spirit began its long run. Dismantling the discount carrier in bankruptcy court.

Part of this liquidation process involves returning the aircraft to the lessors, which is where Nomadic Aviation comes into play. application to courtSpirit had 114 Airbus A320 aircraft, 66 of which were leased.

Giordano said he was so busy before his Spirit recapture flight that he forgot to eat.

“When I got to the plane, I said, ‘Oh no, I’m really hungry and we won’t have a choice until we get to Arizona,'” Giordano said. “One of the technicians said, ‘Hey, all the kitchen carts are full.’ So they had all the regular Spirit snacks. I think I had Milano cookies. … I had a few snack boxes with cheese. 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 took from Philadelphia International Airport to Pinal County Airport in Marana, Ariz.

It’s unclear where each aircraft in Spirit’s fleet will end up. The carrier already existed In recent years it has downsized its fleet and cut routes to save cash.