Spirit Airlines on Monday announced measures to reduce its costs following the end of its merger with JetBlue. The US carrier said it had reached an agreement with Airbus to push deliveries of A320neo jets from the second quarter of 2025 to the end of 2026.
It was not revealed how many aircraft will have their deliveries postponed, but according to Flight Global, Spirit would have 33 aircraft from the A320neo family to be received by 2026.
In addition to this batch, Spirit will also delay the delivery of jets scheduled for 2030-2031 but will maintain the schedule for the interval between 2027 and 2029.
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Furthermore, the airline revealed that it will lay off 260 pilots from September 1st.
Expected cost savings are US$340 million over the next two years.
End of the merger agreement with JetBlue
Spirit’s fleet comprises 204 Airbus aircraft, 100 of which are from the new, more efficient Neo family. However, the jets are equipped with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines, which have been subject to a lengthy recall.
As of mid-April, 18 of these planes were parked for unknown reasons.
Spirit and JetBlue had reached a merger agreement in 2022, however, difficulties in obtaining approval for the deal caused the two companies to abandon the plan that would create the 5th largest carrier in the United States.
