By Alison Sider

The first call came to Bob Allen's phone at 6 p.m. ET on a Friday. The message: Get the repo men ready.

Spirit Airlines was still in operation and planes were in the air. But the aircraft leasing firms that own dozens of its bright yellow jets were getting anxious as Spirit barreled toward liquidation. They wanted their planes back.

"I had six hours to find 20 pilots," Allen said.

Nomadic Aviation Group, his company, had been standing by for months as Spirit teetered closer to the brink. Allen and co-founder Steve Giordano quickly assembled a roster of pilots, most of whom had worked for Spirit. They made a WhatsApp group, which swelled to 40 pilots. One had just landed.

"He said, 'can I fly in shorts?'" Giordano recalled. Not a problem. "We generally go khakis and polos, but you know, you've got to do what you've got to do," he told him.

By 9 a.m. the next day, with Spirit's death now official, they were ready to go. Pilots had fanned out to airports in South Florida, Charlotte, Houston and Columbus, Ohio, to go pick up the stranded jets. Some were still at the gates where they'd parked after their final flights.

The somewhat grim task is surprisingly complex, involving hourslong Zoom calls with regulators and airport officials, not to mention armies of lawyers. Giordano spent his son's college graduation glued to his phone, coordinating the first wave of retrievals.

Gaining access to the planes can be a headache. Airport officials don't let just anyone fly off with a 200-seat passenger jet -- they want to see some paperwork. Each repossession can take several hours.

"You can't just hop fences and take airplanes," Giordano said. "It's not like they do on TV."

Planes have to be located, then towed or taxied. Nomadic arranges everything an airline would normally take care of and then some -- making sure the jet gets fueled, planning flight routes, even arranging hotels for crew.

A licensed mechanic has to inspect the plane and sign off on its maintenance history. A representative designated by the Federal Aviation Administration has to give the OK that the plane is airworthy.

Things get more complicated by the day. There's a ticking clock before more maintenance and inspection requirements kick in.

Giordano, who is also a pilot and previously worked for airlines, flew one of the planes from Philadelphia on Thursday. The Wi-Fi still worked -- though he couldn't answer, his phone kept pinging with updates and questions about the other Spirit planes Nomadic was supposed to ferry. The galley carts were still fully stocked with water, soda and snacks.

"Which was good because I forgot to bring any food with me, I was in such a rush to get out the door."

It took some time to find ground handlers to push Giordano's plane back -- some vendors are skittish about anything having to do with Spirit and worry about getting paid. Nomadic has had to pay some of them up front.

Nomadic operates like a miniature airline that ferries jets around the world for aircraft lessors. In 2024 Giordano flew to Harbin, China -- known for its ice festival -- to collect a plane for a client who wanted its engines. The trip took over 24 hours on commercial flights. Their route to deliver the plane in Wales included stops in Calcutta, Muscat and Cairo.

"Stability for us is bad," Giordano said. "When things are bad we're extremely busy. When things are good we're extremely busy."

It looks like business could be picking up. A surge in fuel prices is wreaking havoc on the industry, squeezing profits and pushing airfare higher.

It's not the kind of job Nomadic relishes.

"It's a very, very sad thing on a human level," Allen said.

Giordano documents some trips on his "Cockpit Casual" YouTube series and he and Allen host a podcast about life as a DoorDash for jets. The company's social-media presence has given them airport-celebrity status and helped open doors.

"Everything we do is a side of aviation very few know exists," Giordano said. "We're guys that fly around in jeans and T-shirts, which in itself looks bizarre."

Nomadic has so far ferried around two dozen Spirit jets, taking them to airplane boneyards in the Arizona desert where they sit while their owners decide what to do with them. The climate, low in moisture that can lead to rust in corrosion, is ideal for parking planes.

For the former Spirit pilots, the job gives them one last ride in a big yellow jet.

With no passengers or flight attendants, the flight was eerily quiet, and it was hard to remember to use the Nomadic call sign rather than "Spirit Wings," said one pilot.

"Knowing this is the last flight -- when we land and we taxi in and shut down, that is the last time a Spirit pilot will ever touch the controls, " he said. "That is a sobering thought."

Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 11, 2026 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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