PG: In a given 24-hour period, what’s the actual airline– or aircraft utilization of one of your competitors versus you?

BB: Most of the industry flies around– nine to ten hours per day with their airplanes. We fly about 13 hours per day with our airplanes. So an extra three to four hours per day. And again, you already have the airplane.

That’s like keeping your restaurant open a few extra hours. You’re not paying for infrastructure anymore.

When you use you utilize a factory more, you get more productive. And that’s what our airline is. We’re a factory of airplanes flying places, generating seats, going places. And when you think of it in that mindset, why would you close the factory just because it’s dark outside? You operate the factory when you can offer a lower price, people will come out for that low price. You can fly from Montreal to South Florida in the daytime on an expensive airline option. Or you can leave at 1:30 in the morning, drive 45 miles south of Plattsburgh, and for cheap.

PG: So you got frugal Canadians on the Plattsburgh flight. Describe your other passengers on your other flights.

BB: They’re smart. And they’re value conscious. Because they realize that spending money on an airplane is money they’re not spending in their hotel, not money they’re spending in a nice restaurant where they’re going, not money they’re spending to buy a nice gift for their kids or their loved one.

It’s money that is getting them to where they want to go. So why spend all that [on travel]? You know, our customers are smart. They understand what they’re buying They understand the value trade-off. They understand their seat pitch is going to be a little tighter. If they want to entertain themselves, they’re going to bring my iPad or a book. Because when they land there, they’re going to have more money to do what I really want to do.

PG: Give me your typical passenger: an age, income, location. Have you figured that out?

BB: There’s a perception that we carry, that Spirit has sort of a lower-class customer, if you will. Although we hate that term. But there’s a perception in the industry, too. The reality is, the customers on our airplanes are have the same socioeconomic standing as what’s on most airplanes on most airlines– except for the small group of customers who pay very, very high fares to sit in the business-class cabins, to f– to– to pay the $1,000 to say, “I wanna go tomorrow because I have to go.” If you take that out, our customers look like everybody else on any other airplane.

You have to have a certain level of income and a certain level of discretionary income to even fly in the United States. So if you look at all the airline passengers, as a group, anyone who’s actually on a commercial air– commercial airplane is– makes a little more money than the average Americas.

On our airplane are the people that everyone carries. Other airlines limit say 20 seats to those kind of fares and hold my seats for someone who will pay more. At Spirit , we’ll sell the whole plane at that low rate because we can make money at that low rate because our costs are so low.

PG: Are you saying you’re selling the whole plane at one rate/

BB: No. I’m saying our average is much, much lower than the other airlines. And while our fares get higher as you get closer to departure, they don’t ramp up nearly at the same rate.

Other airline at departure time, it’d be $1,000, 60 days out, you could have bought it for $200. Our same fare on that route might start at $60 and go to $120. It’ll always be less. If you look two weeks out, it’s really hard to beat Spirit’s fares.

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