By now you may have seen numerous reports talking about Spirit Airlines sending a few of its recently acquired Airbus A320neos to the scrappers. Spirit has been dealing with mounting financial pressure, filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2025, just six months after emerging from a previous filing.

Spirit has found itself in a tough position as a result of a major shift in consumer spending following the pandemic, as well as the failed merger with JetBlue, ordering too many aircraft, and dealing with the numerous aircraft groundings as a result of engine issues affecting its Pratt and Whitney-powered Airbus fleet.   

To aggressively combat these problems, the airline is significantly shrinking its operations by furloughing thousands of employees, reducing routes and canceling numerous aircraft orders. They have even started sending some of its newer aircraft to be parted out.

Aviation asset management company EirTrade Aviation, in partnership with lessor RESIDCO, announced that they recently acquired to two Spirit Airline Airbus A320neos. The planes (registered N959NK and N950NK) are just three and a half, and four-years-old respectively, but are worth more in parts versus keeping them in operation.

It’s unclear if these two Pratt and Whitney-powered units also had issues, but the sum of all parts harvested (mainly from the engines) are now worth more than the aircraft themselves. While Pratt and Whitney has made progress addressing reliability concerns affecting its PW1100 GTF engines, hundreds of aircraft utilizing these powerplants are still grounded due to massive supply chain shortages, significantly extending remediation timelines.

Some airlines have become so desperate that they’ve turned to either cannibalizing good engines to fix bad ones, or are trying to acquire jets from others not willing to continue operating PW-powered neos with the main goal of scrapping the engines. Given Spirit’s peculiar situation, they’re recuperating a fair bit selling these aircraft rather than holding on to them at the expense of further increasing their losses.

On the flip side, there are a number of Airbus A320 units well over 30 years old still in service today. Before I go further, this isn’t a post to compare A320ceos with neos, or to bash the newer A320neos. The obvious problem lies with the engine rather than the aircraft itself, but given that you can’t just swap in a GE LEAP engine (without massive systems rework), it’s just interesting to see many neos being grounded for extended periods of time or facing premature retirement.

South African low-cost carrier Lift Airline operates a mixed fleet of Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s, including three A320-200s which are over 36 years old. The oldest, ZS-GAR, is 36 3/4 years is still operating twice weekly flights between Cape Town (CPT) and Johannesburg (JNB).

lift airline airbus a320 render
Credit: Lift Airline

This aircraft rolled off the line in April 1989, and was supposed to go to Pan Am, but was re-assigned to Braniff International Airways. After Braniff’s downfall, the aircraft was passed on to America West Airlines (and later US Airways following the merger), where it would spend the majority of its life. After that, it went on to a leasing corporation, offering ACMI type services to a number of smaller carriers including Corendon Airlines, Sunrise Airways, Uganda Airlines, and now Lift Airline.

Another A320 contender was JY-JAC, coming in at 36 years and 8 months old before being retired in October 2025. The aircraft last flew for FLYONE Armenia, and also exchanged many hands over its lifetime.

These A320ceos may not be the most fuel efficient, but it’s good to these aircraft still in service many decades later with a bit of good maintenance. Sadly, some of today’s A320neos may never see anywhere near as much usage given the unfortunate engine situation.

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