Spirit Airlines Finalises Massive Airbus Order, by Travel Radar Correspondent David Hopwood

Confirming their memorandum of understanding signed in October last year, the Florida-based ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit has finalised an order for 100 A320NEO family aircraft, and order worth approximately $10.5 billion at list price.

Spirit A319 ©Flickr/Thomas Del Caro

The airline will receive a mixture of A319, -320 and -321NEOs to supplement its current all-Airbus fleet of 144 aircraft. Delivery is scheduled through to 2027. The engine option isn’t finalised, but the airline is likely to favour the IAE power plant. The aircraft is expected to deliver a reduction of 20% in fuel consumption and 50% in noise over the previous generation, as a consequence of the new engines and wing sharklets.

Spirit serves destinations throughout the USA, Latin America and the Caribbean. It receives heavy criticism for its fare strategy of luring passengers with extremely low fares (e.g. Chicago-New York, Tuesday early am 14^th Jan, $61.39) and charging high prices for everything else; carry-on luggage, ($55, and $52 for first checked in) refreshments, Wi-Fi and so forth.

Nevertheless, there’s clearly an enormous demand for discomfort in the US-as elsewhere-and as always caveat emptor.

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