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Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engine issues could leave Spirit aircraft stored in Ascent’s facility for multiple years.
When Spirit Airlines shut down in early May, its fleet consisted of 114 aircraft—66 leased and 48 owned. The airline rejected its leases from 15 lessors on May 8. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in late May approved the sale of 20 of Spirit’s A320-family aircraft to CSDS Asset Management.
Interested buyers were already snapping up the aircraft last year as Spirit began breaking leases during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. Aftermarket asset supplier KP Aviation tells Aviation Week it closed on two of the airline’s A320neo airframes in October from an undisclosed lessor. KP Chief Commercial Officer Scott Butler says most lessors are removing ex-Spirit A320neo engines for shop visits and aim to reactivate the aircraft when the engines return.
KP Aviation plans to disassemble the two A320-neos and route the used serviceable material (USM) through maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) providers such as its Airside MRO repair station subsidiary. “There is a lot of value in the material for these aircraft because they are so young, and the [A320]neo has a huge market and a long runway ahead,” Butler says.
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This reflects what Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary told Aviation Week in early June—that he had heard from two big lessors of Airbus jets that engines were being taken off former Spirit aircraft to be released into the spares market this summer, “where the yields appear to be far higher than the lease rentals for aircraft.”
Post-bankruptcy, multiple bidders for Spirit’s assets have emerged, including South African company Mooney International and prospective startup carrier Florida Air Express, which plans to operate an all-A320 fleet. Florida Air Express stated in a proposal filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York that it wants to acquire 20-37 of Spirit’s owned aircraft and more than 18 of its owned engines, as well as the defunct carrier’s Florida hub gates.
As of late June, only one sale of ex-Spirit aircraft has been publicly announced since the shutdown. Commercial aircraft parts supplier Killick Aerospace reported purchasing three of Spirit’s owned A320neos in early June, two of which it said it will disassemble. The company said that one of these aircraft, MSN 11152, is the youngest A320neo to be inducted for disassembly to date. The aircraft was manufactured in 2022 and delivered to Spirit in November that year.
Teardowns of young A320neos have become more frequent over the past year. GA Telesis announced in April that it had begun disassembly of two of the youngest A320neos ever inducted into a teardown program—neither was yet five years old.
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