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TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Ascent Aviation has about 91 Spirit Airlines planes at its southern Arizona facilities following the airline’s shutdown earlier this year.
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The aircraft maintenance operations company, which operates out of Marana and Tucson, had 30 Spirit Airlines planes before the airline shut down in May.
When Spirit went out of business, 61 more planes were sent to the facility at Pinal Airpark, with many put directly into storage.
“They’ll stay in storage until the leasing companies or the management companies find new operators to operate those aircraft,” said Dave Querio, Ascent Aviation chief executive officer.
Many of the planes could fly again.
“Most of them will be repurposed to other airlines around the world, as lessors find new operators who need the aircraft,” Querio said.
Ascent has already received some requests to do maintenance on the planes, so lessors and maintenance companies can possibly release them to other companies in the future.
This company is preparing for a new program where they will convert large Boeing 777 planes for a different purpose.
“(The) program will start in September, and that is actually taking a passenger (plane) and turn it into a freighter. So, it will change it into a cargo aircraft,” said Ascent Aviation President and COO Tim McGuire.
Ascent Aviation currently supports lessors, operators, and airlines with their Spirit fleet through storage and heavy maintenance programs.
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The company expects to add jobs to southern Arizona as a result of servicing the Spirit Airlines planes and launching the new passenger-to-freighter program.
“As a result of our growth this year alone, we’re going to be adding on north of 200 to 250 jobs by the end of the year,” Querio said.
“It’s continued growth for Ascent, the Marana, Pima County and Pinal County area, and it brings a lot of jobs to this group,” McGuire said.
Ascent leadership said at this moment, they don’t know where the Spirit Airlines planes will go or what some of them may be used for. That depends on their lessor or management company.
Once that decision is made, the planes will be serviced or maintained depending on those needs, which could mean some of the planes will take the skies once again.
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