Analysis: Which US-Based Airlines Have Deferred Airbus Deliveries & Why?

Summary At least three US-based airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, and Spirit Airlines have deferred Airbus A320neo family aircraft deliveries. All three reasoned in a similar fashion, arguing that the deferrals would help their liquidity situation. Other airlines, including American Airlines and United Airlines, have pushed back aircraft deliveries in the past few years.

In the past few months, struggling United States carriers, including Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, and Spirit Airlines, have deferred aircraft deliveries in an effort to preserve their liquidity. The trope uniting all three airlines was that all three carriers are either all-Airbus operators (Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines) or have fleets that are underpinned by the European manufacturer’s aircraft (JetBlue). For Airbus, that meant that the A320neo family aircraft has additional highly sought-after delivery slots in the next few years while also ensuring long-term demand for its best-selling single-aisle jets.

Frontier Airlines deferring deliveries and dropping the A321XLR Frontier Airlines was the last major commercial airline in the US to announce its Q2 results, indicating that after the quarter where its revenues were $973 million, it earned a $31 million net income, it also deferred Airbus A320neo and A321neo deliveries. The airline finalized the agreement with Airbus on August 7, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. As a result, the carrier’s remaining delive.