Spirit Airlines has decided to postpone the delivery of jets from the A320neo family until 2030 onwards amid the US carrier’s capacity reduction.
Like JetBlue, the carrier operates jets with Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM (GTF) engines, which are experiencing availability issues due to a recall.
Spirit currently has 91 A320neos and 18 A321neos in its fleet, but 18 of them were out of service in August. The company says it expects 20 of these aircraft to be grounded during 2024.
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Another relevant piece of data released by the company reveals that the utilization of its aircraft was 10.6 hours, a decrease of 6.2 compared to the second quarter of 2023 (11.3 hours), “primarily due to aircraft unavailable for operational service due to PW1100G-JM geared
turbo fan engine availability issues.”
Loss of US$ 193 million in the 2nd quarter
This week, JetBlue postponed the delivery of 44 A320neo family aircraft with GTF engines until 2030, claiming that it cannot accept aircraft that will be grounded for a long time.
Spirit attributed the postponement to its reorganization after the failed merger with JetBlue. The company is reducing its capacity to adapt to a lower leisure demand.
In the 2nd quarter, the carrier had a loss of US$ 193 million compared to just US$ 2.3 million in the same period in 2023. In the year, losses reach US$ 336 million.
“Summer demand remains robust and load factors have been strong; however, significant industry capacity increases together with ancillary pricing changes in the competitive environment have made it difficult to increase yields, resulting in disappointing revenue results for the second quarter of 2024,” said Ted Christie, Spirit’s President and Chief Executive Officer.
