Real World Aviation News

First full view of KLM’S FIRST A350.

Photo Euro Spot

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Air Canada took delivery of its first Airbus A321XLR (C-GXLR) in Hamburg from SMBC Aviation Capital; the airline plans to take delivery of 30 aircraft (15 leased, 15 purchased), featuring 14 lie-flat seats, with entry into transatlantic and transcontinental service.

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Thought it might be of interest, the 5 Lufthansa 787-9’s taken up by the airline in 2022/23 were originally destined for Hainan (4 of them at least) and then Vistara but both cancelled with the final one, D-ABPE being destined for Suparna and also being cancelled (I flew on it last year without realising haha).

Well D-ABPE has as of 7th April last month gone to Austrian with the other 4, A,B,C & D, all due for transfer shortly.

And my photo of it,

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Rip Spirit. Seems the government deal fell through and no bailout is available. Wonder if they got bored…

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/spirit-airlines-prepares-to-shut-down-as-rescue-deal-falls-apart-5a2d5936

Provided FT too as it’s a less bias article,

https://www.ft.com/content/18ab5a6a-397a-47b5-af06-f8e846b45bf1?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Thanks to @ukplanespotter757 for the heads up

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Dang, seen them a fair bit around the US, shame I never got to fly on the flying Banana!

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I know you’re not supposed to share FR24 screenshots, but since the last Spirit Aircraft just turned it’s transponder off, figured I’d send a screenshot just before it got shut off

Then the couple pictures I have of Spirit Aircraft

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spirit is done for? aww thats sad. no more banana jokes…

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Crazy how we’re actually about to lose one of the worlds biggest low cost carriers..

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Good riddance. So long and Rest in uhhh….. not peace?

In all seriousness – I have never met someone who actually liked to fly Spirit or who had a positive experience on Spirit. They’ve always been one of the worst airlines within the budget class in the US, and while short term supply restrictions will negatively impact consumers, not having Spirit will be a net improvement for flyers over time.

Funl Statement for those who are interested: https://www.spiritrestructuring.com/resources/Spirit-Airlines-Begins-Orderly-Wind-Down-of-Operations.pdf

Also… No more flying bananas! Sayonara!

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Tbf, I wouldn’t really shed a tear over Ryanair collapsing or Wizz as even though I’ve not experienced the latter, Ryanair is a poor experience. Even though they operate a lot of routes which wouldn’t get done by the legacy airlines but their presence has killed so many smaller unique regional airlines for a crap cheap bus service. I’m happy to pay a bit more for an EZY flight or for another regional operator if they were about so I understand.

Its just a pity to lose yet another livery, especially one so snazzy, to a sea of increasing homogenous banality. Plus the negative impact on consumers as you say.

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I don’t know if snazzy is the word choice I would make for bright yellow flying bananas in the sky, but hey… you do you lol!

I hope more airlines try to thread that LCC needle that Breeze and JetBlue provide in the US as opposed to that Spirit / Frontier / RyanAir pure budget model. I will generally pay more for those flights just so that I don’t need a chiropractor after my flight haha.

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God, it’s so sad what happened to NK.

I never did personally fly spirit, but they were very important to the U.S. Airline industry. Airports really won’t be the same without the presence of their bright yellow livery.

NK1833 was their last flight, hard to believe they are just gone overnight.

Blue skies and tailwinds, Spirit.

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Hope all the Pilots, Cabin crew and all the behind the scenes workers get hired by other companies, maybe Allegiant with their expansions, because to just lose your job overnight, it’s rough.

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Living in a country where Ryanair is based and is pretty much the only major low cost airline operating out of there, if it collapse it would be devastating as a lot of European routes (especially to Eastern Europe) is mainly operated by Ryanair if it collapse that means no flights to some high demand destinations and smaller airports may lose access and shut down.
In my opinion they are alright when things go well except for there horrendous bag policy and forcing to download there app.

As for Spirit, i do fell bad for there employees and i wish them the best of luck of finding another operator to work with. And another iconic livery gone! :tired_face:

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Maybe it does increase homogeneity and banality, but I have never much liked the bananality of spirit, so I think it’s fine lmao

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The thing that would suck even more imo is losing seniority. Starting all over again midway thru your career has to be rough

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Yeah that too, didn’t even think of that!

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Just saw a video of a spirit employee, either pilot or FA informing the passengers on one of their last flights of the shutdown of the airline, poor guy was trying to not break into tears, you could hear it in his voice. You can’t help but feel bad, no company should go out like that.

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Its been around long enough that it could be a massive part of a persons life. If you launched your career with them in the early 2000s when they were in their silver phase and had worked your way with them till now, that’s a quarter of your life. The people and connections and friendships, all melted away in one evening. 17,000 people on the dole down the job centre is rough. Hope the other airlines help them out and are willing to take on at least some of them.

When Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019, it was the largest airlift in UK history with a Malaysia Airlines A380 contracted in to get passengers back to Manchester amongst other things. Tens of thousands of employees found themselves unemployed overnight across Europe and North Africa as well as the Caribbean and NA, a lot of whom had only recently been taken on from the collapse of Monarch and whom previously had been employed with the likes of XL Airways when that went under in 2008. I know a lot of jobs were saved when Hays Travel took over the high street travel agents but the rest I have no idea, no company has really plugged the gap left.

I can only hope the same isn’t the case for the Spirit workers :frowning:. I don’t think the bigwigs really think about how much of an impact working at such a company has on people, you really do get attached to the brand and to being a part of the machine.

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Oh yeah, I mean Italy is heavily reliant on the airline because it was able to jump in when others failed like Air One, Wind Jet and then further down the line with Air Italy/Meridiana and Blue Panorama amongst others. I can completely understand, when Jet2 pulled out of Blackpool, it went. When Air Southwest went bust, Plymouth lost its airport. Carlisle Airport looks like it hasn’t got much of a future now that the eco airline thing collapsed. It sucks and I’d feel for the people affected by it, but I wouldn’t shed a tear to its loss itself.

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