With less than a month to go until the aviation community meets in Atlanta for the 2025 edition of MRO Americas, this week’s Flight Friday has a U.S.-focused theme, specifically Spirit Airlines, which has just emerged from Chapter 11 restructuring.
Spirit Airlines has longed for a new suitor, previously having “dates” with both JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines, but the Florida-based ULCC eventually entered Chapter 11 in November 2024.
Spirit entered the pandemic with a fleet of almost 150 aircraft and aggressively grew its fleet to over 210 aircraft since then, trying to attract the attention of potential suitors. However, Spirit has been hindered, in part, by the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G (GTF) durability issues. Over 50% of Spirit’s current fleet comprises GTF-powered Airbus 320/321neo aircraft.
The impact of the durability issue began in August 2023, following Pratt’s announcement of the issues related to the GTF. The “ground days” of aircraft powered by the GTF (note “ground days” could be for any reason, maintenance, AOG, or regular operations, etc.) began to rise from 15% in August 2023 up to almost 30% in February 2025.
The GTF’s durability issues are not the only reason that utilization varies so much. In the months just before Spirit announced that it was entering Chapter 11, the data shows a drop in utilization as Spirit parked aircraft to deal with its financial issues.
The aggregate highs of the summer of 2024 peaked at a little over 26,000 flights in a month, and aggregate utilization was down to around 18,000 flights per month in early 2025.
Now that Spirit has emerged from Chapter 11 with a reduced debt and a stronger financial position, it will go about its business, probably still looking for a suitor.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization database.
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