Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, April 24. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
08.04.2024 - 16:49 / skift.com / Spirit Airlines / Ted Christie / Spirit Ceo / Gordon Smith
Spirit Airlines has announced two major changes to help shore up its balance sheet.
Firstly, the low-cost carrier has struck a deal with Airbus to delay deliveries of some new planes. Almost all Airbus A320neo Family aircraft that were due to be delivered between Q2 2025 and the end of 2026 are being deferred.
Spirit says the decision is expected to improve its liquidity position by approximately $340 million over the next two years. The planes will now arrive around five years later between 2030 and 2031.
The U.S. low-cost airline said the move only impacts orders within the 2025-2026 period, with those scheduled after this unaffected.
It added that the deferrals do not include direct-lease planes due for delivery in the period, with one handover scheduled in both Q2 and Q3 of 2025.
The details were contained within an SEC filing published on Monday morning.
Ted Christie, Spirit’s President and CEO said: “Deferring these aircraft gives us the opportunity to reset the business and focus on the core airline while we adjust to changes in the competitive environment. In addition, enhancing our liquidity provides us additional financial stability as we position the company for a return to profitability.”
“We would like to thank our partners at Airbus for their continued support and commitment to the long-term success of Spirit,” he added.
Secondly, the airline is making changes to its pilot pool.
Spirit plans to furlough around 260 pilots from September 1. It says this is “a result of grounded aircraft due to Pratt & Whitney GTF engine availability issues, along with the 2025 and 2026 aircraft deferrals.”
In July 2023, Pratt & Whitney discovered that its geared turbofan (GTF) engines manufactured between Q4 2015 and Q3 of 2021 had a contaminated powdered metal that could interfere with normal functions.
The issues primarily affected Airbus A320neo jets. This has required carriers such as Spirit to ground planes as they undergo checks and repairs. The low-cost carrier expects to ground 25 A320neos during 2024 alone.
Last week it was revealed that Spirit is expecting to receive anywhere from $150 million to $200 million in compensation for the grounding.
On the pilot furloughs, Christie said: “I am extremely proud of our dedicated Spirit team for their focus and resilience over the last few years. Unfortunately, we had to make the difficult decision to furlough pilots given the grounded aircraft in our fleet and our deferral of future deliveries.
“We are doing everything we can to protect team members, while balancing our responsibility to return to positive cash-flow and thrive as a healthy company with long-term growth prospects,” added the Spirit CEO.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, April 24. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
As the airline industry enjoys an enduring surge in demand for premium and international travel, JetBlue is taking a hit.
There’s nothing more annoying than waiting at the airport for a delayed flight, and that’s more likely to happen with some airlines than others.
Plenty of metrics can be used to rank the best airlines, from safety measures to customer satisfaction ratings and how their fleet and crew does at getting passengers to their destinations on time. But which airlines are the most comfortable for passengers? According to a new study from WalletHub, there’s a tie between two U.S. airlines: Both Delta and JetBlue earned the honors for being the most comfortable airlines.
When you’re looking for flights, you’re probably most loyal to the airline that you have status with or that has a hub in your city—most often, they’re one in the same. Or, you’re looking for the best flight deals, which should be a little bit easier to come by this spring as flight costs are down 7% year-over-year. But safety, comfort, and other factors are also top of mind when it comes to booking flights, and a new study from WalletHub, a personal finance company, took those considerations and other metrics into consideration to determine the best U.S. airlines of 2024.
Travelers to Yellowstone National Park should expect more traffic jams this summer as crews work on a pair of major improvement projects in the popular park.
From Boeing delivery delays and increased Federal Aviation Administration oversight to escalations in the Middle East, it would seem like United Airlines might be in hot water.
Spirit Airlines is making more changes to its route network.
Coming home from a recent trip, I had the opportunity to transit through the brand-new Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport, located outside the increasingly popular Mexican Caribbean destination of Tulum in the state of Quintana Roo.
Viking has unveiled a new “Spirit of Mongolia” extension program for guests who sail on one of the line’s new China voyages.
JetBlue said recently that it was eliminating a number of routes from its network. It soon became clear that the low-cost airline was adopting a network optimization strategy aimed at cutting unprofitable services and redeploying its fleet to more lucrative locations.
Prince did it. Twitter did it. Meta and WW and KFC have all done it. Now Oakland International Airport wants to do it, too.