A320neos Could Be Scrapped

Airbus A320neos that previously flew with Spirit Airlines are at risk of being scrapped, according to fresh reporting.

Flagged by Ishka and thanks to industry sources, ongoing discussions are underway between key lessors and various companies in the industry focused on aircraft parting out, with the future of these still relatively new single-aisle models unclear.

The focus is on Airbus A320neo aircraft that previously flew with Spirit Airlines and have had their future put into disarray following this airline’s second bankruptcy filing in as many years and its subsequent restructuring of the vast majority of its business.

With a number of these Airbus A320neo aircraft being removed from the Spirit Airlines fleet, they have also long struggled with engine reliability woes and would now be forced to make visits to facilities for maintenance before the planes could even return to service. This is a costly and time-consuming endeavour.

The exact scale of the changes that have hit Spirit Airlines over recent months still hasn’t been entirely made clear, as many aircraft have not only been removed from the fleet but also grounded, with the intention of disappearing from its operations.

Current data, thanks to planespotters.net, suggests Spirit Airlines has just 114 aircraft remaining in its fleet, spread across the Airbus A320 family, including 20 A320neos and 21 A321neos.

Staggeringly, the airline at the beginning of October had 149 planes active, and even this was considerably fewer than the airline’s peak, not even that long ago, when over 200 planes were in operation; the changes were coming in thick and fast for the carrier.

Spirit Airlines Confirms A320 Fleet Reduction

Spirit Airlines’ future fleet is already expected to look very different as part of ongoing restructuring efforts. That picture has become all the clearer in recent days, after the October reporting suggested almost 100 planes would be axed.

Now the U.S. carrier will see its operating shrink substantially with the removal of many next-generation and current-engine option models across the broader Airbus A320 program as part of efforts to restructure its fleet and shrink it to become more sustainable moving forward.

Based on the airline’s fleet figures from many months ago, once the changes have fully come into effect, the airline will operate with fewer than half the number of jets it once had at its disposal, and the reductions in available aircraft will also result in the axing of specific locations.

The airline has already amde several changes to its network with in September the decision being reached to axe service across 12 cities: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Birmingham, Alabama; Boise, Idaho; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Oakland, California; Columbia, South Carolina; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Diego, California; and San Jose, California.

Those actions are part of the airline’s attempts to navigate a turbulent period and optimise the network, focusing on utilising available assets to serve markets with robust demand.

Spirit Airlines has also moved to reject leases on many narrowbody jets to reduce the scale of its business, hoping that, over time, it’ll emerge from bankruptcy protection in a streamlined, sustainable manner.

When factoring in the persistent engine woes that have long burdened Spirit Airlines and the existing financial complications that have not let up on the business, the removal of these aircraft, which have only been problematic since entering the fleet, makes a lot of sense.