Frontier Airlines is about to take delivery of its first aircraft previously flown by Spirit Airlines. According to fleet records reported by Simple Flying and Planespotters.net, Airbus A321neo N731NK is being prepared at Tucson International Airport to join Frontier as N814FR, the first of ten nearly new ex-Spirit A321neos the Denver-based carrier is leasing from AerCap.
A two-year-old jet gets a second career
N731NK, manufacturer serial number 11937, is a Pratt & Whitney GTF-powered A321-271NX that was delivered to Spirit in July 2024 and entered service later that month. Spirit configured it with eight Big Front Seats and 227 standard seats. The aircraft was withdrawn after Spirit ceased operations in May and stored at Pinal Airpark in Marana, Arizona.
On 28 September it was repositioned on the short hop to Tucson, flying as Nomadic Aviation flight OMD323 according to Flightradar24 records. The work there is not only a repaint into Frontier colours: Frontier configures its A321neos with 240 seats, so the cabin also has to be adjusted from the 235-seat Spirit layout.
N731NK is only the start. Two more former Spirit A321neos, N724NK and N725NK, have also been ferried to Tucson and already have Frontier registrations assigned, which suggests they will follow shortly.
Ten aircraft from AerCap
Frontier signed its agreement with lessor AerCap on 29 August. It covers ten A321neos, all delivered to Spirit during 2024, with deliveries to Frontier expected between the fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027. The deal gives Frontier access to young aircraft without waiting for new production slots at Airbus.
The transfer is part of a wider reshaping of the fleet. Days before the AerCap deal, Frontier agreed to return 13 A320neos early. The airline said that combination would maintain similar capacity with fewer aircraft and lower costs, underlining the productivity of the larger A321neo.
According to Simple Flying, Frontier currently operates 68 A320neos with 186 seats, 69 A321neos with 240 seats and 27 A320ceo-family aircraft, a total of 164 jets. The ex-Spirit aircraft also fit neatly from a commonality point of view: Frontier already uses Pratt & Whitney GTF engines across its A320neo-family fleet and chose the same powerplant in 2025 for another 91 A321neos, taking its total GTF commitment to 235 aircraft.
Former rivals, one fleet
The handover adds another twist to the history of two ultra-low-cost carriers that once planned to merge. Frontier and Spirit were pursuing a $2.4 billion combination only four years ago before that plan was abandoned. Now Spirit's youngest jets are flowing to its former partner.
Spirit's fleet was unusually young when the airline shut down, with its Airbus aircraft averaging only 8.2 years old and dozens more A320neos and A321neos still on order. That has made the aircraft attractive to carriers around the world.
Where the rest of Spirit's fleet is going
Frontier is far from the only buyer. Uzbekistan's FLYONE Asia has placed two ex-Spirit A321neos into service, while Vietnam's Vietravel Airlines has taken three former Spirit A320ceo-family aircraft. Germany's Condor is adding four former Spirit A320neos to the seven it already operates.
In Australia, Qantas subsidiary Network Aviation has built a nine-aircraft A319 fleet from former Spirit jets, and GlobalX has agreed to acquire three ex-Spirit A320 airframes. GlobalX chief financial officer Ryan Goepel called it "a highly attractive opportunity" for the airline. "We would be almost negligent if we didn't pursue those aircraft today because that sets us up not just for quarters, but for years," he said.
Not every Spirit aircraft has been so lucky. Some remarkably young A320neo-family jets have already been dismantled for their engines and parts, a sign of how valuable individual GTF-powered components have become.
What comes next
Once work in Tucson is complete, N814FR is expected to become the first of the ten former Spirit A321neos to enter Frontier service. With further aircraft already on site and deliveries scheduled into early 2027, Frontier's A321neo fleet is set to keep growing even as the airline hands back 13 smaller A320neos early.
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