Fifth Third flies home from Houston after a week of merger execution

Fifth Third flew from Houston's William P. Hobby Airport to Cincinnati Municipal Airport Lunken Field on June 16, a 1-hour 56-minute hop in its Challenger 300 (N167FT). The trip lands the bank's leadership back at headquarters the same week Fifth Third continues to digest its $10.9 billion acquisition of Comerica, a deal that closed in February and created the ninth-largest U.S. bank, per a Morgan Stanley conference presentation filed with the SEC on June 10.

The Houston visit likely tied to the bank's ongoing integration work. Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence told analysts on a Friday call that the Comerica conversion is progressing "at an accelerated pace," with a full systems and brand conversion scheduled for Labor Day weekend, as reported by American Banker. The bank has already completed its first of three mock conversions and plans to shut 81 branches this summer, mostly in Michigan, per OCC filings covered by Banking Dive.

The Houston trip follows a busy week of travel. On June 10, Fifth Third flew from Cincinnati to New York for the Morgan Stanley conference. The next day it went to Chicago, then to Reading, Pennsylvania, and Columbus, Ohio, before heading to Dallas and Houston on June 15. The pattern suggests a roadshow of investor meetings and integration reviews as the bank approaches its September conversion deadline.