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Robert Fornaro becomes new CEO at Spirit Airlines

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Spirit Airlines has announced today that Robert L. Fornaro has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Fornaro comes to succeed Ben Baldanza, who joined Spirit in 2005 as Chief Operating Officer and served as President and CEO since 2006.
In a press statement, Baldanza thanked Spirit’s management team members “for their support and efforts in making Spirit the success that it is today. I am focused on supporting a seamless transition and wish the Company and Bob continued success in the future.” Baldanza also praised Fornaro’s leadership, which considers as “the right choice to lead the company through its next phase of growth.”
Fornaro has been a Spirit board member since May 2014, and previously served as the CEO of AirTran Holdings Inc and a consultant for various airlines. “Bob’s deep knowledge of Spirit and his background, skills and operational expertise give the Board full confidence that he is the right leader to deliver on the next phase of Spirit Airlines’ growth story” said H. McIntyre Gardner, Spirit’s non-executive chairman.
During Baldanza’s tenure, the airline experienced a transition into a highly successful ultra low-cost business model pioneered by Ryanair in Europe, by bringing the model to the South Florida – Latin America market. In five years, the airline had a swift international expansion to key regional markets such as Colombia, Panama and Peru, and standardized its fleet around the Airbus A320 family aircraft.
“Ben was instrumental in transitioning Spirit into a highly successful ultra low-cost carrier, a significant achievement in the airline industry, which benefited our employees and customers,” added Gardner.
“I am honored by the Board’s selection and am excited to have the opportunity to lead Spirit,” said Fornaro, who will also continue to serve as a member of Spirit’s Board. “Spirit’s focus will remain delivering a customer-friendly product and providing the lowest total price to the places we fly. I look forward to working with the rest of Spirit’s management team and team members to grow the Company’s proven ultra low-cost model and drive value for all of Spirit’s stockholders.”
Airways News

Ben Baldanza, who led the industry push for more and more airline fees, is out as CEO of Spirit Airlines.
Spirit was losing money until Baldanza, 54, took over in 2006. He oversaw the airline’s transformation into an “ultra-low cost carrier,” an airline that didn’t include anything in its base fare and charged extra for seat assignments, snacks, soda, boarding passes and even using the overhead bin. To cram more people into its jets, Baldanza stripped passengers of the ability to recline their seats. He spun the move as making the seats “pre-reclined.”
Known for his brash, no-excuses style, Baldanza said that if people didn’t like the fees, they could fly another airline.
Baldanza at times reveled in the animosity that he helped to generate. Taped to the side of a corner bookshelf in his office was an expletive laden email from one disgruntled traveler that, in part, read: “I just want to let you know that your company sucks and your policy will run it into the ground.”
Baldanza’s over-the-top style often carried over into the airline’s ads.
When former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted to sending lewd photos to women, the airline launched “The Weiner Sale: With Fares Too HARD to Resist.” The airline once hired bikini-clad pole-dancers to drive around Los Angeles with a sign saying: “You can take me home for $9.”
For many, Spirit’s prices are irresistible. For those who play the game right, sit in the middle seat and bring very little luggage, the savings are substantial. That has helped the airline become one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most-profitable carriers. It now has 375 daily flights to 56 destinations in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the past year, the amount of available seats has grown by 34 percent. But passenger revenues haven’t kept up, growing less than 1 percent, as other airlines also created their own structure of fees, which are no longer a novelty.
Shares of Spirit Airlines have been cut in half over the past year.
“Following the tremendous growth and success of Spirit over the last 10 years, the board and I have concluded that this is the right time to implement an orderly succession plan,” Baldanza said in a printed statement released by the Miramar, Florida airline.
Robert L. Fornaro, who led discount carrier AirTran before its sale to Southwest Airlines, will take over as CEO immediately.
Baldanza, who moved his family to Florida from the Washington D.C. suburbs to head Spirit, has recently moved back north, according to the airline.
Fornaro was appointed to the Spirit board of directors in May 2014. He served as CEO of AirTran Holdings from November 2007 until the company’s sale to Southwest in May 2011. He has also served as senior vice president of planning for US Airways and as senior vice president of marketing planning at Northwest Airlines.
CNBC

Be careful if you are Middle-Eastern and flying in the US…

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Anti-terror officers were called to the incident just days after the Paris attacks which killed 130 people.
The alarmed passenger said she became worried when a man made several phone calls in another language and claimed she saw him receive a text message reading “BLR Dynamite” – apparently referring to an Bengaluru airport, India.
She said the man was travelling with two others and talking with a fourth.
The worried passenger notified crew who took the Spirt Airlines plane back to its gate at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and ordered all passengers off the plane while a woman and three men were detained for questioning.
Passengers said the group appears to be of Middle Eastern descent and security officials who went onboard said there was a “credible security threat”.
The four passengers were interviewed by Transportation Authority Police officers but no trace of the text message was found on the suspect’s phone.
Maryland Transportation Authority Police spokesman Jonathan Green said the passenger who had been talking on the phone allowed officers to check the device, and no text message with the word “dynamite” was found.
They were interviewed by Transportation Authority Police officers, an air marshal with the Transportation Security Administration and an agent with the Joint Terrorism Task Force but were released without charge a few hours later.
It transpired the suspect was just watching his news on his phone as he waited for he flight to depart for Chicago.
Despite the false alarm, Spirit Airlines refused to apologise for removing the passengers.
A spokesman for the airline said: “We do not tolerate discrimination or remove passengers because of where they are from, their ethnicity, or their religion.
“The passenger in question was removed from the flight because of his behaviour, which was breaking airline and FAA rules during the taxiing process, and refusing to cooperate with crew instructions.
“Law Enforcement was called and they chose to remove others who were traveling with the passenger who was breaking the rules.”
Mr Green added: “One of the three males was sitting next to a female passenger and apparently he was watching a media report. I don’t know of what nature it was, but given current events, I can imagine what it was.
“Being in her shoes, I’m guessing that combined with what she saw or heard created some concerns for her.
“She told the flight crew, which was most likely a flight attendant, and they spoke to the captain and the captain made the choice to go back to the terminal.
“We did not find any criminal activity or violations of any kind and they were free to do what they pleased at that point.”
Express

Spirit Airlines gives the boot to 6 black passengers

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Passengers of Spirit Airlines Flight 868 accused the company of racism after an altercation over a seat resulted in three black couples being escorted off of the plane at Los Angeles International Airport.
The confusion Monday night started after the passengers claimed the seat was double-booked. After a white flight attendant accused a member of the group of being a threat, the police came and took the six people off of the plane, witnesses told CBS Los Angeles.
“I’m really humiliated just for the simple fact that you hear about this type of stuff happening in America, discrimination issues and stuff like that, but to actually experience it first-hand,” Alexandria Wright, one of the six passengers in the center of the controversy, told the channel.
“It was more than just us having the conversation. Why is that six black people got kicked off the plane?” Wright asked.
After the plane left without the six passengers and landed in Dallas, witnesses told the channel that the banned couples were being disruptive.
In a statement to CBS News, Spirit Airlines said: “Four passengers became unruly and were causing trouble with other passengers. Flight crew asked them to stop. When they did not, law enforcement was called and they were removed from the flight.”
It was not immediately clear why a third couple left the plane.
RT News