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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
March 19, 2004
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER Spirit Airlines said it will place an order today for 35 jets from Airbus Industrie for about $2 billion with an option to buy 60 more. The total deal is valued at about $5 billion. The deal could have major implications for Detroit travelers. New planes would allow Spirit to add domestic and international routes, including some from Metro Airport. This is the single-biggest plane order placed by Spirit, Detroit Metro's biggest low-fare carrier. The 124-passenger Airbus A319 and 220-passenger A321 would replace Spirit's entire fleet of 32 Boeing 150-passenger MD-80s. Spirit will buy an equal number of A319 and A321 planes, spokeswoman Laura Bennett said. The first plane is expected to arrive in March 2005 with the remaining spread through the next five years. The order comes less than a month after Spirit raised $125 million from Los Angeles-based private equity fund Oaktree Capital Management LLC to expand its flights and routes and to update its fleet. "Spirit already has one of the lowest costs of operation in the airline industry, and the new Airbus aircraft, which are technologically advanced and fuel-efficient, will assure our continued leadership," Jacob Schorr, chief executive officer of Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit, said in a statement. Spirit has 115 daily flights, 20 to 25 of them from Detroit. Spirit had said earlier it wants to have at least 200 daily flights within five years with 40 to 50 from Detroit. "Clearly, this has been in the works for many months," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of Business Travel Coalition, a lobby for business travelers. "There is a very determined and thought-out strategy to expand and grow." The new planes give Spirit the ammunition to fight larger airlines like Northwest Airlines, Mitchell said. Spirit recently got approval to fly to 11 countries: Aruba, the Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama.Metro Airport is expected to get some of those international flights. Bennett said the planes would have two-class seating: Spirit Plus and regular economy class. The Airbus 320 family of aircraft is popular with low-fare carriers like Spirit. JetBlue Airways flies the A320s and its costs are among the lowest in the industry. The new planes would help Spirit lower its costs further, Mitchell said. |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
taqai wrote:
Spirit Airlines said it will place an order today for 35 jets from Airbus Industrie for about $2 billion with an option to buy 60 more. The total deal is valued at about $5 billion. What is happening at Boeing ? Are they asleep at the switch ? With the devalued US dollar, one would think that Boeing would have had a big advantage over Airbus especially for domestic USA sales. |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
"nobody" wrote in message ... taqai wrote: Spirit Airlines said it will place an order today for 35 jets from Airbus Industrie for about $2 billion with an option to buy 60 more. The total deal is valued at about $5 billion. What is happening at Boeing ? Are they asleep at the switch ? With the devalued US dollar, one would think that Boeing would have had a big advantage over Airbus especially for domestic USA sales. Boeing management has been asleep at the switch a long time, JF. Just like your buddies at Bombardier. |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
nobody wrote:
taqai wrote: Spirit Airlines said it will place an order today for 35 jets from Airbus Industrie for about $2 billion with an option to buy 60 more. The total deal is valued at about $5 billion. What is happening at Boeing ? Are they asleep at the switch ? With the devalued US dollar, one would think that Boeing would have had a big advantage over Airbus especially for domestic USA sales. American consumers used to be able to buy Yugos too, but very few did. |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
"nobody" wrote in message ... taqai wrote: Spirit Airlines said it will place an order today for 35 jets from Airbus Industrie for about $2 billion with an option to buy 60 more. The total deal is valued at about $5 billion. What is happening at Boeing ? Are they asleep at the switch ? With the devalued US dollar, one would think that Boeing would have had a big advantage over Airbus especially for domestic USA sales. Actually, JF, it won't have much of an effect for another year or so because they hedged their contracts. Beginning at some point in 2005, if the Euro is still markedly stronger than the dollar, Airbus will begin feeling the pain. What they'll likely do at that point is outsource far more than they're currently doing. This explains the situation: http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...w&refer=europe |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
"Quantum Foam Guy" wrote:
Boeing management has been asleep at the switch a long time Was Spirit looking at 717s? If so, this decision combined with Star Alliance rejecting the 717 may finally kill the 717 off. |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
"Clark W. Griswold, Jr."wrote
Was Spirit looking at 717s? If so, this decision combined with Star Alliance rejecting the 717 may finally kill the 717 off. The DC9 is an old design. Name changes cannot hide that. |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
" wrote:
"Clark W. Griswold, Jr."wrote Was Spirit looking at 717s? If so, this decision combined with Star Alliance rejecting the 717 may finally kill the 717 off. The DC9 is an old design. Name changes cannot hide that. The 717 is a result of more than just name changes. About the only similarity between it and an original DC-9 is the shape of the fuselage. Pretty well everything else, from the engines to the cockpit avionics and the shape of the wing have been altered from the original. The 737 is about as old, and is still selling reasonably well as derivatives of its original design. |
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
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#10
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Spirit Airlines to purchase Airbus jets
" wrote:
Was Spirit looking at 717s? If so, this decision combined with Star Alliance rejecting the 717 may finally kill the 717 off. The DC9 is an old design. Name changes cannot hide that. The 737 is also an old design. However, the MD95 (aka 717) was different enough from DC-9 that it finally got its onw certification. And operators seem quite pleased with it. The problem is that it is a orphan child that does not fit well in large fleets, especially since its future isn't very sure. The 717 is also just above a limit where unions would never allow regional operators to fly it. It is interesting that the embraer 100 pax jets is, in many ways, just as orphan as the 717 in large airline fleets. But being just enough smaller, it probably fits better into their plans. It could also have to do with all the subsidies jungle jets and flying skidoos get when exported. |
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