Everything is bigger in Texas, including Spirit Airlines’ operation.The Miramar, Florida-based carrier announced plans on Tuesday to open a dedicated crew base at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) later this fall. Spirit will staff about 150 pilots and 300 flight attendants in the new base, with additional crew, supervisors and support functions to follow in the coming months.Opening a crew base in Houston follows news earlier this year of Spirit opening a new aircraft maintenance facility in Houston, which is serviced by more than 50 full-time employees. In addition to Houston, Spirit also performs aircraft maintenance at its hangars in Detroit.Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG’s free new biweekly Aviation newsletter.By stationing crew members in Houston, the carrier will seemingly be able to grow in the market, as most pilots and flight attendants start and end their day at the same base. Spirit’s Houston base is the 10th for the carrier, joining existing ones in Atlanta (ATL), Atlantic City (ACY), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Detroit (DTW), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Las Vegas (LAS), Miami (MIA) and Orlando (MCO).“In total, we are bringing about 500 good-paying jobs to the Houston marketplace. All of that means growth, we are going to continue to expand here in Houston. There are going to be lots more opportunities for Houstonians to get low fares on Spirit,” said Spirit CEO Ted Christie in an interview.Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.As for why Houston is the ideal location for growing its employee base, Christie mentioned that “it’s the perfect location because of the size of the market. Geographically, it’s in a really good spot in the country.“Spirit serves 16 domestic and international destinations from Houston, including new service to Monterrey, Mexico (MTY), scheduled to begin this fall.Spirit Airlines’ Houston network (Map courtesy of Cirium)The move to open a crew base in Houston comes as the bidding war for Spirit has heated up in recent months. Frontier announced plans in February to create a mega-ultra-low-cost carrier by merging with Spirit, while JetBlue has since entered the competition with multiple takeover bids.Only time will tell which carrier prevails, as the recently rescheduled Spirit shareholder meeting is coming up on July 27.
