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American carrier, Spirit Airlines, as it navigates Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection for the second time this year, has announced that the carrier is backtracking on its decision to furlough up to 365 pilots during the first quarter (Q1) of 2026. Additionally, the carrier has also stated that the number of captains who would be downgraded to first officers will also be reduced.
While the airline has not provided a reason behind these decisions, reports indicate that the pilots’ union states that the assumptions made by the airline when it first announced these furloughs and downgrades were no longer accurate. Simple Flying has reached out to the carrier.
Spirit Announces Changes To Its Original Plan
Spirit Airlines, as part of its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection restructuring strategy, back in October, announced that it would be furloughing up to 365 pilots during the first quarter of 2026, along with the carrier’s plans to downgrade the status of 170 captains to first offers. However, reports from Reuters indicate that the airline’s announcement on Friday signifies considerable changes have been made regarding these plans.
The key changes are that the carrier will NO LONGER furlough the 365 pilots during Q1, 2026, and that it will only be downgrading the status of 25 captains instead of the originally intended 170 captains. This marks a considerable change in direction, when the airline previously furloughed around 600 pilots as part of its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection restructuring, and even negotiated a deal with the pilots’ association in November, which saw the flight crew’s pay reduced by 8% and cut contributions to the retirement account.
Reuters reported the following statement from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA),
“The business case supporting large-scale furloughs simply did not align with current data.”
Significant Losses & Entering Chapter 11 Bankruptcy For A Second Time
The Ultra-Low-Cost Carrier (ULCC) first filed for Chapter 11 in November of 2024, and by March this year, the carrier had exited protection. However, things did not get better for the airline as Spirit recorded losses of over $800 million and the airline entered bankruptcy protection for a second time, towards the end of August.
Though the carrier remained operational during all this time and continues to do so, Spirit has made considerable changes, downsizing its network, furloughing pilots, and deferring aircraft deliveries. This included the aforementioned furloughing of 600 pilots and negotiating a pay cut for crew and pilots in November, cutting off 150 salaried positions from the airline, and ceasing services, accounting for 15 routes, to five airports across the network.
Additionally, Bloomberg reports that Spirit Airlines also reached an agreement in September with the Irish aircraft leasing company, AerCap, to return assets the airline is not currently utilizing, while also reducing a previous aircraft order size, to raise capital. This has resulted in the airline reducing its fleet by nearly half of what it had at the beginning of 2025. As of November, the carrier has 132 active aircraft in its fleet, as the airline has been sending its aircraft to storage, early retirements, and back to lessors by rejecting lease renewals throughout the year.
Spirit Reaches Agreement With Pilots And Flight Attendants Over Pay Cuts
The airline has been furloughing pilots and cabin crew members in recent months, while also slimming down its fleet size.
Some Of These Aircraft Might Not Fly Again!
The latest reports indicate that some of these aircraft that are being sent back to the lessors might not fly again, and instead could be scrapped for useful parts and resources for other aircraft. The airline, as part of its restructuring, is streamlining its fleet and is currently trying to obtain court approval to cancel leases on over 80 Airbus A320neo and A320ceo aircraft from over a dozen lessors.
Data indicates that these aircraft have an average age of under three years, and while there is market demand for the A320s (especially the neo variants), there is higher demand in the market for spare parts, such as the engines, primarily due to the ongoing supply chain issues and the grounding of existing A320 aircraft due to manufacturing-related defects on the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines.
As such, it is potentially more cost-effective for lessors to scrap the aircraft for its engines, avionics, and other valuable systems rather than reconfiguring the aircraft and leasing it to other customers. However, only time will tell if the Spirit gets the approval to cancel these leases and, if so, what the lessors will intend to do with these returned aircraft.
