Spirit Airlines Press Release:
RICHMOND, B.C. ’“ March 13, 2013 ’“ Spirit Airlines announced today the purchase of 21 CorPower lithium electric GSE retrofit kits for their Fort Lauderdale operations.
’œSpirit Airlines is committed to innovative, cost-efficient and environmentally responsible operations to support their low-base-fare approach to the market. The Corvus product allows Spirit to repower existing assets and reduce fuel consumption and maintenance expenses. This not only reduces Spirit’s cost per passenger mile but also reduces harmful emissions for customers and employees,’ said Corvus Energy’s VP of Business Development, Sean Puchalski.
“We are looking forward to introducing this product as yet another way that Spirit is making travel not only more affordable for our customers, but also more environmentally friendly,” said Spirit Airlines’ Chief Operating Officer Tony Lefebvre. “At the same time, the Corvus product allows us to reduce our ground support costs by eliminating our fuel expense and reducing our maintenance expense on these tractors. The capital outlay is significantly less than going with new lead-acid electric tractors and the lithium charging infrastructure is less demanding on airport electrical infrastructure.”
This order represents conversion of Spirit’s entire Fort Lauderdale fleet of baggage tractors. Spirit estimates a fuel reduction savings of 25,000 gallons of gasoline per year, resulting in reduction of greenhouse gasses by an estimated 243 tons of carbon and positively impacting the air quality for everyone locally and globally. Spirit will purchase the units from Corvus’ North American distributor Aviation GSE America, Inc.
