Last week, the world watched as America’s largest ultra-low-cost carrier ceased operations. Spirit Airlinespassengers and crew were stranded across the airline’s network, leaving thousands of staff out of work, and closing the final chapter of the airline’s long-running financial troubles. This has left 91 jets at 26 airports across the country.

Spirit operated a fleet of all Airbus A320 family of aircraft, and at the time of the airline’s collapse, airplanes were spread across 26 airports in the United States, with around 17 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), and 15 in Orlando International Airport (MCO), the airline’s two largest bases. In the last few days, several aircraft have been ferried to storage in Arizona.

The Final Chapter Of Spirit Airlines

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Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, Spirit has been unable to rebound fully and has been plagued by ongoing financial troubles. There had been a potential light at the end of the tunnel in the chance of a $500 million government-funded bailout, which would have seen the US Government take a 90% stake in the budget airline. These talks ultimately failed, and the airline had no option but to cease operations.

In recent months, Spirit had been axing several routes and frequencies and parking up to 40 aircraft as the airline attempted to rebalance its books. At the time of the airline’s collapse, 40 aircraft had already been moved for temporary storage, predominantly at Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR).

Today, three more aircraft have been relocated to Arizona, with one headed for Pinal Airpark (MZJ) and two to Goodyear, operated by the aircraft lessor.

Safe Storage For These Bright Yellow Aircraft

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Airlines will often store aircraft in the desert when long-term parking solutions are needed. These dry conditions are perfect for maintaining the aircraft’s integrity with the low humidity and minimal rainfall. This prevents corrosion or rust on the airframes and is often a cost-effective solution. This was made evident during the COVID-19 Pandemic, when thousands of the world’s aircraft were hibernated.

For Spirit, the relocation of aircraft to Arizona will support the likes of AerSale at Goodyear to preserve the Spirit aircraft for future operators. The majority of Spirit’s fleet was leased, which will now permit the lessor to look for new long-term homes for these aircraft. For Spirit’s Airbus A321-200ceos, these were owned by the airline, and now it is widely speculated that these may be scrapped for parts, and have pieces sold off, such as the GTF engines, which are in hot demand.

Before the airline’s collapse, around 87 aircraft had their leases rejected by Spirit as the airline continued its efforts to improve its bottom line. As leasing of aircraft is common in the airline industry, this was a wise move by the carrier to reduce its overheads and return the planes to the lessor.

Recent Movements Of Spirit Aircraft

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In a post by Flightradar24, it shows several former Spirit aircraft destined for Arizona to go into storage, and on May 4, the aircraft were-enroute from Houston, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami bound for Pinal and Goodyear. All three of these planes were A321-200NEO.

At the time of Spirit’s collapse, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando had the highest number of aircraft on the ground, with Dallas/Fort Worth and Newark tied in third place with seven planes stranded. This was followed by Las Vegas, Detroit, and Miami. The top ten are detailed below:

Other aircraft were located at Philadelphia, Atlanta, La Guardia, Boston, Atlantic City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Charlotte, Columbus, Nashville, Los Angeles, Pensacola, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Birmingham, and Indianapolis.