Spirit Airlines has requested bankruptcy court approval to reject leases on 87 Airbus A320-family aircraft, including 19 A320ceos, 65 A320neos, and three A321neos. This move follows a separate request earlier in the week to return 27 A320neo planes to AerCap, an aircraft leasing company. In total, Spirit is seeking to cut 114 planes from its fleet, which had 214 aircraft as of August when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year.
The planned reductions represent more than half of Spirit's fleet and are comparable in size to the fleets of Allegiant Air or Copa Airlines. The lease rejections affect all of Spirit’s A320neo aircraft, which have experienced ongoing issues with their Pratt and Whitney geared turbofan engines. As a result of these engine problems, Spirit grounded 38 affected aircraft in August.
Fred Cromer, chief financial officer of Spirit Airlines, explained the rationale behind the decision: "Rejecting these leases will relieve Spirit of the burden of unprofitable leases and of the costs of maintaining and storing several aircraft that are already out of service." Cromer estimated that these measures would save Spirit "hundreds of millions of dollars" annually.
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