Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie was given a $3.8 million retention bonus a week before the no-frills, Florida-based airline took over. carrier declared bankruptAccording to a report.
Christie, whose company announced last month it planned to cut an unspecified number of jobs and sell some jets worth millions, gets a bonus if he stays with the firm for another year. According to WLRN South Florida.
The chief executive, who was named CEO in 2019 after serving as chief financial officer, lives in a luxurious $2.5 million home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – just a 30-minute drive from the company headquarters in Miramar. According to Realtor.com.
Christie and his wife, Theresa, paid $1.2 million for the three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in 2012.
The “custom built” residence, which measures 3,617 sq ft of living space over a 6,189 sq ft plot, boasts of a number of amenities including a private swimming pool in the backyard as well as a covered veranda.
The airline, whose stock has fallen more than 90% since the beginning of the year, Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York on Monday – Months later Federal judge blocks its $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue Airways.
more recently, Merger talks between Spirit and Frontier It later collapsed after deciding not to proceed with a deal.
The bankruptcy filing marked a stunning fall from grace for an airline that had considerable market share before the coronavirus pandemic, when it was luring price-sensitive travelers and forcing larger carriers to offer their own versions of budget offerings. Was getting it done.
The airline’s integrated fleet business model helped it optimize its resources and keep costs down by flying planes more hours a day and having more seats in each plane.
Its high fleet utilization produced double-digit operating margins for nine consecutive years through 2020.
But the pandemic upended the operating environment and people’s travel patterns — making it difficult for Spirit to adapt.
Spirit’s average daily aircraft utilization is down 16% this year compared to 2019, leading to increased cost pressures.
Consumer demand has shifted in favor of full-service airlines over the past two years as middle- and upper-income families have been vacationing en masse, while inflation has hurt low-income spenders.
Meanwhile the losses continue to pile up – the company has lost more than $2.5 billion since the beginning of 2020. Spirit also faces mounting debt, with payments totaling more than $1 billion imminent.
Spirit, like many other airlines, pursued growth, but did so by adding more than $2 billion of debt between 2020 and 2023.
Sticking to its pre-pandemic plan, its capacity grew by an average of 27% over the past three years to capture a larger share of the leisure travel market.
Analysts urged Spirit and its non-convenient peers to slow expansion plans.
The post seeks comment from Spirit Airlines.
with post wire
