Spirit Airlines wants to make things easier for its Central Florida crew members, hire hundreds more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Spirit Airlines plans to bring hundreds of jobs to Orlando by opening a new crew base in Central Florida

The airline said it will base up to 150 flight attendants and pilots in Orlando by the beginning of December.

“It’s really good news for me and my family because I live here. This is home,” said Kimberly Alvarez, a flight attendant for Spirit. “Now that I’ll have the opportunity to be here my son’s like, ‘This is the best news.’ I get to come home.”

“We’ve been here for 25 years and crew have been asking for a base in Orlando for a very long time,” said Lania Rittenhouse, vice president of inflight experience for Spirit.

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Orlando will become the seventh crew base for Spirit, which already operates another Florida base in Fort Lauderdale.

The airline said it plans to base up to 800 crew members in Central Florida by next April.

Spirit plans to host several job fairs over the next few months to fill the new positions.

Spirit also announced 12 new routes from Orlando, including Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Panama, and other locations in South America. When those flights take off, the airline will have up to 49 daily flights from OIA.

Cox Media Group