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Spirit Airline is jumping into the consolidated headquarters and training center game with a brand-new facility only a stone’s throw from the Fort Lauderdale airport in South Florida.
The hometown carrier plans to break ground on the up to 500,000 square foot campus early next year with plans to open the facility by mid-2 022. With an estimated cost of about $250 million, the it will residence Spirit’s more than 1,000 headquarters employees and bring pilot, flight attendant and other train facilities in-house.
The new campus will be located in the Dania Pointe progress, about a mile-and-a-half south of the Fort Lauderdale/ Hollywood International Airport( FLL) and just off Interstate 95.
” People will see this building from the roadway, they will see this from the airport ,” Spirit CEO Ted Christie told TPG Thursday.” This will drive label awareness in South Florida .”
Related: Spirit Airlines unveils brand-new seats that it says will make for happier passengers
A rendering of Spirit Airlines’ projected new headquarters and training campus near the Fort Lauderdale airport.( Photo courtesy of Spirit Airline)
The ultra-low-cost-carrier has maintained its headquarters in leased room in Miramar, Florida — about 15 miles or an up-to-3 0-minute drive from the Fort Lauderdale airport — since 1999. That room, as Christie set it, is” busting at the seams” with personnel located in several disconnected agency locations.
In addition to the multiple corporate spaces, Spirit’s crew civilize is outsourced across five locates in Broward County, creating additional inefficiencies, said the airline’s chief financial officer Scott Haralson Thursday.
Spirit is just the latest airline to invest in a brand-new headquarters room. Earlier this year, American Airlines opened a new campus in Fort Worth, Texas, that consolidates and updates its corporate offices and training facilities. Last-place time, Alaska Airline broke ground on a new corporate office building next to its Seattle/ Tacoma International Airport( SEA) base, and United Airline consolidated its captain training in a brand-new facility in Denver.
The facility investments at Alaska, American and United come after each carrier went through their own respective consolidations. All three bargains widened each airlines’ system, but likewise created a be required for expanded corporate agency and training space for “the worlds largest” resulting companies.
Related: Spirit merely began flying from Nashville, and it’s already adding 3 more roads
Spirit, while not having gone through a merger, have kept growing rapidly in recent years and will continue to through the mid-2 020 s, said Haralson. This expansion prompted the need for a brand-new campus, a process that began around five-years ago. The airline assessed everything from a headquarters move, a dedicated training facility elsewhere in its network, to the campus idea that was ultimately selected.
The campus news comes as Spirit continues to invest in improving the customer experience, something Christie said dovetails with the guest investments. Operational betterments continue, he added, as do onboard upgrades, like the new seats unveiled in September, and pending frequent-flyer program update.
Gensler, which has designed everything from the JetBlue Airways terminal at New York John F. Kennedy( JFK) to the Star Alliance lounge at Los Angeles International Airport( LAX ), will design Spirit’s new campus.
Rendering of Spirit Airline’ planned brand-new headquarters and training campus in Fort Lauderdale.( Photo courtesy of Spirit Airlines)
Featured image by Saul Martinez/ Bloomberg via Getty Images.
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