Spirit CEO wants to end airline’s poor reputation

Washington / Bloomberg

Spirit Airlines Inc. wants to eliminate its reputation for late arrivals, but has no illusions it will ever be No. 1 for being on-time.
Traditionally saddled with one of the worst on-time performances among U.S. carriers, the ultra-low-cost airline will try to improve its rate by 10 percentage points this year as one of several steps new Chief Executive Officer Robert Fornaro is taking to improve its rapport with customers. That would mean Spirit would get people to their destination as scheduled about 80 percent of the time, or about the current average for the industry.
“What we’re trying to do this summer and into the fall is create some stability,” Fornaro said Monday in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters.
Spirit likely will never be a leader in punctuality, because the operational costs of doing so would increase costs too much and upend its low-price image. However, the airline must improve upon an on-time rate that hovered in the 60 percent range last year, Fornaro said.
Fornaro, 63, took over at Spirit in January after the sudden departure of then-CEO Ben Baldanza. Fornaro previously ran budget carrier AirTran Airways until 2011, the year it was acquired by Southwest Airlines Co. He’s been trying to improve its operations and soften its image for poor service with extra training for workers and improved communications. The airline’s website is also getting an overhaul.
“We’re No. 1 with price, and that creates a lot of benefits,” Fornaro said. “But it doesn’t mean you can’t be good with service.”
Under Baldanza, the carrier’s emphasis on fast growth and willingness to charge customers even for a soft drink and carry-on bags often came at the expense of customer service. Fornaro is encouraging flight attendants to be friendlier, such as explaining to passengers how paying for a cup of soda keeps fares low for instance.
Getting people to their destinations on time is a key piece of smoothing things over with customers. Last year, the carrier was on time just 69 percent of the time, according to Department of Transportation data. The average of 13 U.S. airlines was 79.9 percent. Fornaro wants to improve its performance 5 percentage points in the summer and another 5 points in the fall, Fornaro said.