AirTran Airways will build a permanent,
hurricane-hardened Systems Operations Control (SOC) center at Orlando
International Airport, keep its existing Orlando headquarters and add high-
paying jobs in Florida.“Orlando will remain our nerve center for our fast-growing network as
well as our headquarters city,” said Robert. L. Fornaro, AirTran Airways
president and chief executive officer. “We are proud to call Orlando home.
Orlando is a great city with a business-friendly climate, growing business
and leisure passenger base and livability. It’s a place skilled Crew
Members want to come to work and raise their families—and we’d like to
thank Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Enterprise Florida, Orlando Mayor
Buddy Dyer, the City of Orlando, the Metro Orlando Economic Development
Commission and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority for forming a
partnership that will benefit AirTran Airways and, we believe, Central
Florida for many, many years.”

  AirTran Airways has rapidly added flights and new routes at its home
base and now operates 449 weekly flights to 33 nonstop destinations from
Orlando. The company plans to add 121 jobs at an average salary of $45,000
to its 300- member Orlando workforce. Many of the new jobs are tied to the
AirTran Airways SOC, the airline’s technologically advanced nerve center,
where dispatchers, schedulers and resource planners control all aspects of
airline operations. The existing SOC was extensively damaged in 2004 by
Hurricane Charley.

  “This is great news for our state since the aviation industry and
headquarters operations are critical to our plans for economic growth,”
said Florida Governor Charlie Crist. “I am thankful to AirTran Airways for
realizing the value of continuing its business base in Florida, and I
congratulate our partners at the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and the
City of Orlando for their successful efforts in retaining this business
that is important to the Central Florida market as well as the state.”
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