Spirit Airlines A320neos to be scrapped for parts at just 4 years old
February 16, 2026
The desperate state of Spirit Airlines’ finances has sealed the fate of at least two of its former aircraft. A pair of A320neos, both just a few years old, have been acquired by an asset management company and will be torn down for parts.
They are the youngest new generation aircraft ever to be dismantled.
MSN 10769 and MSN 10921, aged just 4 and 3.5 years, were delivered new to Spirit Airlines from Airbus, one in December ’21, the other in July 2022. Both stopped flying in the first half of 2025.
Now, these young, efficient aircraft, costing over $110 million when new, will be scrapped and scavenged for spares to keep the in-service fleet in the air.
Scrapping is already underway for the first two Spirit A320neos
EirTrade Aviation, a Dublin-headquartered aviation asset management company, shared today that it had concluded the acquisition of MSN 10769 and 10921, formerly N950NK and N959NK in Spirit Airlines service.
The two aircraft are to be torn down in Goodyear, Arizona, with parts funnelled to EirTrade’s hub in Dallas to support in-service aircraft.
“We are focused on newer vintage aircraft to ensure that our inventory contains the highest quality rotables, which ensure that our customers can be supported with the latest modification standard components,” says Bill Thompson, Vice President Origination & Trading for the Americas at EirTrade Aviation.
“We have also acquired four sets of in-demand LRU and BFE components from the PW1100 engine type within this significant transaction.”
Line Replacement Units (LRUs) are modular components designed to be removed and replaced rapidly. On the Pratt & Whitney GTF, which powers the A320neo, this could include sensors, actuators, FADEC or any other consumable components.
Buyer Furnished Equipment (BFE) could be anything that Spirit had to go along with that powerplant, over and above the basic engine. This could be anything from avionics interfaces to quick-change kits, but clearly adds to the appeal for a reseller like EirTrade.
EirTrade has confirmed that disassembly of the two A320neos is already underway. Within the next few weeks, by the end of the first quarter, the company says that parts from these aircraft will be removed, repaired and available on the market.
Why are technology aircraft worth more in pieces than as entire planes?
The scrapping of two incredibly young Spirit Airlines Airbus A320neos is a mark of an industry in crisis.
Since the pandemic, aviation manufacturing has struggled to get back on track. Still reeling from a loss of talent and momentum during the shutdown, a dearth of raw materials has served to rot the supply chain from the bottom up, making the once well-oiled machine of MRO and manufacturing volatile and unpredictable.
Pour over the top of that a cocktail of higher energy costs, geopolitical shocks, tariffs and quality slips, and it becomes a wonder MRO is still taking place at all.
Pratt & Whitney’s high-profile GTF recall, which has grounded hundreds of passenger jets (and continues to do so), has added fuel to the fire. Even those airlines that have already had the GTF fix live in fear of an aircraft going ‘tech’, knowing that any time in MRO, particularly for engine-related matters, is going to be much longer than it should be.
Aircraft on ground (AOG) are expensive issues for commercial airlines. An asset that should be earning thousands of dollars a day is instead sitting idle and costing thousands of dollars a day. The longer they sit, the bigger the losses.
Airlines under pressure are prepared to pay over the odds for the parts they need to keep aircraft flying, and that makes an off-lease airframe a valuable proposition.
A growing trend of young aircraft being scrapped
Over recent months, we’ve seen numerous young airframes scrapped, as the parts shortage continues to put pressure on airlines and traders.
Up to now, the youngest new technology Airbus aircraft to be scrapped were a pair of IndiGo A321neos. The narrowbodies were torn down at just six years old.
In June last year, the first-ever Airbus A220 was scrapped. The ex-EgyptAir aircraft was parted out at just five years old as the GTF-related impact proved too much for the airline to absorb.
Spirit Airlines is rapidly shrinking its fleet as it fights its way through its second bankruptcy. With many more of its heavily A320neo-family fleet now back with lessors, there could well be more news of young aircraft being scrapped in the weeks ahead.
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