Summary
- Spirit Airlines sells 25 planes to satisfy debt repayments, generating $419 million in net money proceeds.
- The sale and leaseback agreement will help the carrier repay roughly $465 million in debt related to the aircraft.
- Spirit Airlines has a fleet of over 200 A320-family aircraft and plans to retire its A319s by the top of 2025.
Spirit Airlines has sold 25 aircraft as a part of a sale and leaseback agreement to assist it meet debt repayments.
Spirit sells off 25 planes
Based on a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week, Spirit Airlines has accomplished the sale and leaseback of 25 of its aircraft. The all-Airbus A320-family carrier is saddled with debt and recently announced a net lack of over $157 million for Q3 2023.
Photo: lorenzatx | Shutterstock
The sale will likely be used to repay roughly $465 million in debt payments related to said aircraft, with net money proceeds of around $419 million generated through the sale – for those who do the maths, that works out at just over $16.75 million per plane.
The SEC filing said,
Spirit has not revealed which specific aircraft are involved within the deal. The ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) has previously resorted to sale and leaseback agreements with lessors to liberate capital, including deals with Avolon, GECAS (before its acquisition by AerCap), and an agreement last yr with Aircraft Leasing & Management (ALM) over five A320neos.
The Spirit fleet
The budget airline’s fleet currently stands at over 200 aircraft, all of which belong to the A320-family. Its oldest planes are its 17 A319-100s which have a mean age approaching 17 years old, as per ch-aviation. The airline welcomed nearly all of its A319s in 2006 and 2007, even though it took delivery of two airframes on lease in 2016.
Photo: Carlos Yudica | Shutterstock
It also dropped its plans to fly the A319neo, as an alternative converting its orders to the larger A321neo, and plans on retiring all of its A319s by the top of 2025. In January 2023, the carrier announced a significant sale involving 29 of its A319s, generating as much as $200 million.
The A320 makes up nearly all of Spirit’s fleet. The airline currently has 148 A320s, split across 64 A320-200s and 84 A320neos, and expects to induct one other 15 A320neos over 2024. A lot of the airline’s A321s are the older A321-200 model, of which it has 30, while its A321neo fleet currently stands at eight. Spirit welcomed its first A321neo in June 2023 and can eventually induct over 40 of the kind.
JetBlue merger update
Spirit and JetBlue proceed to attend for a ruling on their proposed merger after the trial led to early December. The deal has faced opposition by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on antitrust grounds, claiming a merger will ultimately result in higher airfares and fewer options for low-cost travel.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Easy Flying
JetBlue – Spirit Airlines Merger Now Awaiting Judge’s Decision
The deal could undergo with further concessions from JetBlue.
The judgment on this case is predicted in some unspecified time in the future this month – if it goes ahead, it might result in the creation of the country’s fifth-largest airline.
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