A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 taxis at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from Boston on September 1, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kevin Carter | Getty Images News | Getty Images<\/p>\n
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. \u2014 Spirit Airlines is making “massive progress” to revitalize the airline, the carrier’s restructuring lawyer Marshall Huebner said in a court hearing Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The struggling budget airline has reached an agreement with some of its debtholders for up to $475 million in debtor-in-possession financing, as well as $150 million from a major aircraft lessor, Huebner said. The agreements are subject to court approval.<\/p>\n
Spirit last month filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection<\/a> in less than a year after high costs, weaker demand and a host of other lingering problems drove more than $250 million in losses from when it emerged from its first bankruptcy in March through June.<\/p>\n The carrier has been racing to cut costs and recently announced plans to cut 40 routes<\/a> and furlough<\/a> about one-third of its flight attendants. The airline is in talks with its pilots’ union and is seeking about $100 million in cuts from that group.<\/p>\n Read more CNBC airline news<\/p>\n Huebner, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, said in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday that people who are pessimistic about the struggling carrier’s turnaround prospects should “say less” and observe what it’s doing.<\/p>\n Spirit is planning to reject leases on 27 Airbus narrow-body aircraft from Ireland-based leasing giant AerCap<\/a>, 25 of them airplanes that are grounded or will be grounded for inspection due to a Pratt & Whitney<\/a> engine defect, Huebner said in court. AerCap will pay Spirit $150 million as part of the agreement, under which Spirit would still plan to take delivery of 30 more airplanes, the company said.<\/p>\n Aercap didn’t immediately comment on the plan.<\/p>\n Spirit is also planning to reject 12 airport leases and 19 ground handling agreements as the carrier shrinks to cut costs.<\/p>\n Another hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10. If the debtor-in-possession financing is approved, $200 million would be available immediately.<\/p>\n “These are significant steps forward in a short period of time to build a stronger Spirit and secure a future with high-value travel options for American consumers,” Spirit CEO Dave Davis said in a news release later Tuesday. “While there’s more work to be done, we’re grateful to our stakeholders who have stepped up to support us during the restructuring.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 taxis at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from Boston on September 1,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":235312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[108655,166,10314,9167,64,81,100487,2252,405,51327,522,1164,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-267307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aercap-holdings-nv","9":"tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","10":"tag-airlines","11":"tag-breaking-news-business","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-business-news","14":"tag-dave-davis","15":"tag-life","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-raytheon-technologies-corp","18":"tag-transportation","19":"tag-travel","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115295020840675875","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}