Citing hurricane, tropical storm risks, Spirit Airlines moving inland

Airline moving some employees to Nashville

The discount carrier, which is based in Miramar, has decided to permanently move its operational control center — along with the 240 employees who staff it — to higher ground near Nashville, Tennessee.

Spirit Airlines is tired of playing dodge ball with the mean storm seasons of South Florida.

So the discount carrier, which is based in Miramar, has decided to permanently move its operational control center — along with the 240 employees who staff it — to higher ground near Nashville, Tennessee.

The move, which is expected to be completed by early next year, “will reduce hurricane and tropical storm risk,” the company said in a statement.

Every day around the clock, the center monitors all of the airline’s 650 daily flights. Peering into computers, the people who work there communicate with pilots, handle maintenance requests and track the movements of each plane in the air and on the ground.

But in the last three years alone, the storm risks have turned into turbulent rides for the airline when hurricanes menaced South Florida: In 2017, Irma forced the controllers to pack up their computers and retreat to a maintenance center in Detroit; in 2019, Dorian triggered an exodus to Atlanta.

A growing airline, though, can be nimble for only so long, spokesman Field Sutton said Friday. Spirit is expanding its fleet from 150 jetliners to 300 over the next five years. And more planes will require more people to support them. Also in the next five years, the airline plans to hire nearly 100 more ground controllers.

“You can’t move that vast amount of people and keep the airline running,” Sutton said. Spirit passengers flying from Seattle to Burbank, for example, shouldn’t be delayed because a hurricane is disrupting operations in Florida.

He said the operations move has been in the planning stages for “at least a year,” with the airline looking at Nashville and other cities. “Nashville is a cool city and it’s got a lot going for it,” he said.

New main office still on

Spirit, though, is keeping its promise to build a new corporate headquarters in Dania Beach near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

“We are committed to our South Florida community, and Florida’s hometown airline will continue to create new jobs” in Broward County, said CEO and President Ted Christie.

The airline still expects to move 800 people from Miramar to the new Dania Beach campus when it opens in 2022, with the total number of employees rising to 1,000 later to support the carrier’s U.S. and international expansion. Overall, the company employs 6,500 people and serves 77 destinations in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.

Despite Spirit’s storm-driven decision, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, whose mission is to keep businesses in Broward County and persuade others to relocate here, doesn’t view the weather as a deterrent.

While Florida gets hurricanes, other areas are pounded by crippling snowstorms or overcome by fires, said David Coddington, the alliance’s vice president of business development.

“The weather is always a piece of the conversation,” he said, referring to firms that consider South Florida as a new home or a site for expansion.

After a storm hits, Coddington said, “I think one of things that give companies confidence is seeing the track record of how quickly the community gets back to business.”