Spirit Airlines Sells Its Last 27 Airbus Jets for $668 Million as a Bankruptcy Judge Closes the Book on the Fleet

The sale was done as two separate transactions, approved by Judge Lane in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The larger deal covers 23 aircraft, sold to an entity called Save 2026-B LLC for $567.4 million. Simple Flying and View from the Wing both describe the buyer as controlled by Spirit's aircraft lenders, the holders of the equipment notes secured on those jets. FlightGlobal refers to the group behind that purchase as the "SuperB" bondholders. The 23 jets are 10 Airbus A320-200s and 13 A321-200s.

The smaller deal covers four A321-200s, bought by FTAI Aircraft Leasing Bermuda (2026) Ltd. for $100.7 million in cash. FTAI Aviation is an aircraft and engine lessor, and Bloomberg Law describes the buyer as an affiliate of the company. The four aircraft carry the registrations N661NK, N665NK, N670NK and N671NK.

Add the two prices together and you arrive at roughly $668 million, which View from the Wing gives as $668,129,000 across the 27 aircraft.

Why the numbers differ between reports

Readers comparing coverage will notice that FlightGlobal's headline says $421 million while the other three outlets say $668 million. FlightGlobal's article is behind a paywall, and the portion we could read did not spell out how it reached its figure. It confirms the same structure: 27 Airbus aircraft, four to FTAI Aviation and 23 to the SuperB bondholders. We therefore treat the court-approved $668 million total, reported by Bloomberg Law, Simple Flying and View from the Wing, as the headline number, and flag that FlightGlobal frames the value differently. A likely explanation is that a cash-only figure is being quoted for part of the package, but that is an inference, not something the reporting we read states.

The fleet Spirit is letting go

View from the Wing says the jets were built between 2015 and 2018, and that all of them are powered by International Aero Engines V2500 engines. Simple Flying likewise notes the V2500 engines across the 27 aircraft. They were sold as-is, with airframes, two engines each, equipment and records.

That detail matters to the buyers. The V2500 is the older-generation engine that powers the A320ceo and A321ceo families, and it is a different proposition from the newer geared and LEAP engines on the neo models. These are current, mid-life aircraft rather than museum pieces, and there is an active secondary market for the type. Lessors and lenders can re-lease such jets to other airlines, or strip them for parts. Which route each buyer takes has not been reported in the coverage we reviewed.

How thin the bidding was

The sale process was not a stampede. According to View from the Wing, Spirit's advisers contacted 137 prospective buyers. Forty expressed interest and eight submitted bids. In the end, only FTAI's bid beat the offer made by the lenders, and only for the four A321s. The lenders took the remaining 23.

The process also ran late. View from the Wing reports two auction postponements before the court approved the split sale. The final structure, in which the lender group keeps the bulk of the fleet and a lessor picks off the four aircraft it valued more highly, is a familiar pattern in aircraft-backed bankruptcies: secured creditors can bid the debt they are owed rather than fresh cash, which tends to discourage outside bidders unless the price is compelling.

What was left to sell

Spirit filed for Chapter 11 in August 2025. At that point, View from the Wing says, the airline owned 48 aircraft and leased 166. The 27 jets sold now are the remainder of the owned portion after earlier disposals. Spirit had operated 309 aircraft over its history, according to Simple Flying, spanning McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, DC-9s and a run of Airbus A319, A320 and A321 models.

FlightGlobal's photograph caption places Spirit A320 and A321 aircraft in storage at Victorville, California, the desert facility where many parked airliners wait for new owners. That is the immediate picture behind this sale: a large group of jets sitting idle since the airline stopped flying, now transferring to owners who can decide what happens next.

Reading the price per aircraft

Simple division gives a rough sense of the values involved, though it is our arithmetic rather than a figure any outlet reported. The lender vehicle's $567.4 million across 23 jets works out to about $24.7 million an aircraft. FTAI's $100.7 million across four A321s is about $25.2 million each. The gap is small, which fits the reporting that FTAI outbid the lenders only on those four A321s, and only narrowly in per-aircraft terms.

Those averages blend A320s and A321s of slightly different ages, so they should not be read as a market benchmark for the type. Still, they show the two buyers valued the jets similarly, and that no one paid a premium for the whole portfolio. The as-is terms, covering airframes, two engines each, equipment and records, also mean the buyers take on the cost of any work needed before the aircraft can fly again for another airline.

Why the timing matters

The approval came about four and a half months after Spirit's last passenger flight on May 2, and roughly thirteen months after the August 2025 filing. For creditors, the sale converts idle, depreciating metal sitting in storage into cash and clears the largest open item on the liquidation to-do list. Every additional month in a desert lot carries storage and maintenance costs, which is one reason two postponed auctions were likely unwelcome to those with claims on the aircraft.

What it means for fares and competitors

Spirit's disappearance removed a major budget carrier from the US market. Simple Flying notes that August 2026 marked nine consecutive months of rising US airfares, and quotes former passengers who valued the airline's low base fares and its pay-for-what-you-use model. One, Joshua Sheats, is quoted as saying that if you wanted the perks of a full-service carrier, "you could purchase those perks."

We are careful not to draw a causal line between the airline's exit and higher fares from that reporting alone, because fuel costs and other capacity decisions also move prices. But the practical point stands: an ultra-low-cost carrier's capacity has left the market, and the sale of its jets means that capacity is not coming back under the Spirit name.

For rival carriers, the sale mostly matters indirectly. The 27 jets are not being sold to a competing airline, so they do not add capacity to any single carrier's fleet at once. If the lender-controlled vehicle and FTAI re-lease the aircraft, the A320-family jets could reappear in other operators' fleets over time. The reporting we read gives no indication of buyers lined up for them.

What happens next in the case

The sale is the largest remaining asset disposal in a case that is winding the company down rather than restructuring it. Bloomberg Law describes the carrier as winding down operations through the bankruptcy process. Proceeds from the sale are going to the parties with claims on the aircraft, and the coverage we reviewed does not lay out how much, if anything, flows to unsecured creditors, employees or customers holding credits. Those are the questions that typically follow in a liquidation, and the court filings in the coming weeks are where answers would appear.

What is settled is the fate of the fleet. Twenty-three aircraft go to the lender group's vehicle for $567.4 million, four go to an FTAI affiliate for $100.7 million, and the airline that once flew hundreds of aircraft in bright yellow now owns none of the jets in this sale.

Key figures at a glance

• Approval date: September 23, 2026, Judge Sean H. Lane, US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.
• Total: 27 Airbus jets, $668 million.
• Lender-controlled Save 2026-B LLC: 23 aircraft (10 A320-200, 13 A321-200), $567.4 million.
• FTAI Aircraft Leasing Bermuda (2026) Ltd.: four A321-200s, $100.7 million cash.
• Engines: International Aero Engines V2500 on all 27 aircraft.
• Bidding: 137 parties contacted, 40 interested, eight bids, and two auction postponements.
• Spirit's last passenger flights: May 2, 2026.

Sources

• FlightGlobal, "Spirit Airlines' final Airbus aircraft sold in $421 million bankruptcy deal" (partial, paywalled): https://www.flightglobal.com/spirit-airlines/2026/09/spirit-airlines-final-airbus-aircraft-sold-in-421-million-bankruptcy-deal/
• Simple Flying, "Spirit Sells Last 27 Airbus Jets In $668 Million Deal": https://simpleflying.com/spirit-airlines-sells-last-aircraft/
• Bloomberg Law, "Spirit Airlines Approved to Sell 27 Airplanes for $668 Million": https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/spirit-airlines-approved-to-sell-27-airplanes-for-668-million
• View from the Wing, "Spirit Airlines Sells Final Aircraft Portfolio For $668 Million": https://viewfromthewing.com/spirit-airlines-sells-final-aircraft-portfolio-for-668-million/