And the situation is the same for hotels and other sectors on down to trucking companies. Speaking at the Skift Global Forum in September, incoming Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said the issue is so acute that, aside from Southwest’s own hiring challenges, he was given a job application with his food at the Texas burger chain Whataburger recently. labor shortage, or perhaps more appropriately a shortage of workers willing to risk of Covid-19 exposure for a low-wage, entry-level job, has hit companies across the economy. Commercial Chief Matt Klein described demand as “very strong” during the summer before the variant hit, and said that it generally “continues to improve.” With little corporate travel business, his comments reflect the leisure and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market that other airlines have described as fully recovered from its pandemic trough. Notably absent from Spirit’s comments Thursday was much color on travel demand.
However, Spirit has also dropped five cities, including Asheville, Niagara Falls, and Managua, Nicaragua. It has added eight new destinations to its map this year, including a large 30-route expansion into Miami in October, Cirium schedules show.
American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have also faced some staffing-related operational issues since the beginning of the year.Įven with Spirit’s foot off the metaphorical gas, the airline is still larger than it was two years ago. Incoming Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan has also described 2022 as another “transition” year for the carrier following Southwest’s own operational and workforce challenges. And for investors, it targeted a return to its pre-crisis financial metrics that were long among the best in the industry. The airline planned to grow capacity in the “mid-teens” compared to 2021 and return its fleet of Airbus jets to full utilization - or more than 12 hours a day per aircraft. The leisure-first recovery played to Spirit’s strengths as a holiday-destination oriented airline with more than half of its schedule touching Florida. carrier felt the negative effects of the Delta variant, Spirit’s own staffing challenges and subsequent August meltdown when it cancelled more than 2,800 flights over 10 days cost it $50 million in revenue and forced it to completely reevaluate its recovery plan.Īnd that plan, prior to August, was rosy. “The direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic have lasted longer than anyone could have predicted,” said Ted Christie, CEO of the Miramar, Florida-based carrier, during a third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. The surge in Covid-19 cases and its own staffing-related operational issues in August dragged the discounter down and forced it to scale back its recovery plans, including reclassify 2022 as yet another “recovery” year. The recovery got the better of Spirit Airlines in the third quarter. Spirit Airlines has scaled back its recovery plans following operational and staffing challenges.
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