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Spirit Airlines CFO Ted Christie will take over as CEO of the discount airline on Tuesday, completing a succession plan that the carrier announced a year ago.
Outgoing CEO Bob Fornaro has led Spirit since January 2016. During his tenure, Fornaro has placed a sharp focus on improving customer service and operational reliability at Spirit, and his efforts have brought results.
Once an industry laggard in reliability, Spirit had the second-lowest cancellation percentage among the 10 mainline U.S. airlines in October, the most recent month for which DOT has released statistics. Spirit’s on-time percentage was fourth, and its mishandled-baggage percentage was second.
Spirit also is performing well financially. Spirit stock jumped 21% in 2018. And in the third quarter, the carrier reported an operating margin of 16.1%, similar to last year’s 16.3%, despite shouldering a 34.9% increase in fuel cost per gallon.
Spirit’s fourth quarter is also on pace to be strong, driven in part by the carrier’s industry-leading initiatives in dynamic pricing of seat selections, bag fees and bundled fares.
In November, the company estimated that its total revenue per available seat mile would be up 11% for the quarter on a year-over-year basis.
Source: travelweekly.com
