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The airline specified the agreement will defer the order scheduled to be delivered in the second quarter of 2025 through the end of 2026 to between 2030 and 2031. It said the agreement will improve its liquidity by about $340 million over the next two years.
Spirit noted the deferrals don’t include the direct-lease aircraft scheduled for delivery in that period, one each in the second and third quarter of 2025. It also said there are no changes to the aircraft on order with Airbus scheduled to be delivered in 2027 through 2029.
Spirit disclosed it intends to furlough about 260 pilots effective Sept. 1 as a result of grounded aircraft due to Pratt & Whitney GTF engine availability issues along with the 2025 and 2026 aircraft deferrals. As a result, it entered into a compensation agreement with Pratt & Whitney regarding the engines, which it estimates to improve its liquidity between $150 million and $200 million over the term of that agreement.
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The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident in which an engine cover fell off a Southwest Airlines-flown Boeing 737-800 jet during takeoff from Denver on Sunday.
The FAA said Flight 3695, which was headed for Houston, returned safely to Denver International Airport around 8:15 a.m. after its crew reported that an engine cover fell off during takeoff and struck a wing flap.
The aircraft was towed to the gate upon landing, the FAA said.
Southwest said maintenance teams were reviewing the aircraft and apologized for the delay. The passengers were moved to another aircraft.
A Boeing spokesperson referred the request to Southwest for information about the jet and the airline’s fleet operations.
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Boeing delivered 24 737 MAX jets in March, capping the airplane maker’s slowest start to the year since the pandemic.
Boeing has been turning out fewer planes since the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines door plug blowout. It is well below the goal it set before the accident of producing 48 737 MAXs a month.
The company has slowed its production lines to root out quality issues and amid heightened scrutiny by federal regulators.
Boeing has delivered 67 737s through the year’s first quarter, down from 112 for the same period a year ago. That’s the lowest number since the first three months of 2021, when it delivered 63.
Boeing has said it expects to pick up the pace of production later in the year.
The jet maker delivered 24 737 MAXs, up from 18 in February. It also delivered five 787 Dreamliners.
Boeing had a backlog of 5,668 planes, most of them 737s, at the end of March.
Boeing said it received orders for 113 planes and reported two order cancellations—both for 777 freighters.
Of the 737s delivered this year, 17 have gone to China. Boeing resumed deliveries to China in January after a four-year freeze following two MAX jet crashes in 2018 and 2019.
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A veteran Boeing engineer has filed a complaint with federal regulators alleging the company dismissed quality and safety concerns during production of its troubled 787 Dreamliner jets.
Federal safety officials are investigating claims by the engineer, Sam Salehpour, that in 2021 he observed Boeing using shortcuts during the 787 assembly process that placed excessive stress on important joints and embedded drilling debris between joints on more than 1,000 planes. The errors, they say, reduce the plane’s lifespan and could be difficult to detect.
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