Potential bidders include a Florida firm that envisions launching a new US airline.
The bankrupt parent of defunct US carrier Spirit Airlines aims in the coming weeks to close out bidding to sell assets, including several dozen Airbus A320-family jets and slots at New York LaGuardia airport.
Several bidders have already come forward, including a company called Florida Air Express Airlines, which envisions using Spirit’s jets to start a new passenger carrier.
Spirit Aviation Holdings, based in Dania Beach, Florida, shut down Spirit Airlines on 2 May after nearly running out of money. The company had been operating under bankruptcy court protection since filing in August 2025 with US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
While Spirit, an all-Airbus A320 operator, relied heavily on leased aircraft, it owns 48 of the jets and other valuable assets.
The company is now preparing to liquidate those assets through a bidding and auction process.
Spirit’s attorneys recently filed court papers laying out their proposed auction. They intend for interested buyers to bid for Spirit’s LaGuardia slots no later than 30 June, for its Dania Beach headquarters by 20 July and for other assets by 7 July. Bidders would need to submit an “indication of interest” earlier, with sales subject to review during a court hearing.
Whether the court has approved that timeline remains unclear. Davis Polk, the law firm representing Spirit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lawyers with that firm filed a “liquidation analysis” with the court in April estimating the company would be worth $2.6 billion at the end of May, with hard assets valued at $1.8 billion. That list included $1.4 billion for the aircraft and engines, $167 million for aircraft parts, $87 million for LaGuardia slots and $154 million for the company’s headquarters.
The analysis said debtors held claims totalling $8.9 billion.
At the end of April, Spirit had $72 million in cash and $418 million in restricted cash, filings show.
BIDDERS LINING UP
Some entities have already expressed interest in scooping up those assets, including prospective start-up Florida Air Express, court filings show.
Owned by a firm called Spanish Main International Airlines and led by LeRoy Gillead, Florida Air Express has, since the early 1980s, held a “Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity” – a document it says provides “full legal authority” to operate as an airline.
“This liquidation presents a singular opportunity to acquire, at distressed pricing, precisely the operational infrastructure required to launch at scale as Florida’s dominant ultra-low-cost carrier,” the company says in court papers.
Florida Air, now based at Palm Beach International airport, aims to acquire 20-37 of Spirit’s aircraft, along with parts, maintenance assets and the LaGuardia slots and gates in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa. It envisions first operating intra-Florida flights before expanding to the Caribbean, Latin America and eventually, using A321XLRs, to London, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.
Separately, a South African firm called Mooney International says it already submitted a bid to acquire Spirit’s assets. The firm’s chief executive Connor Johnson tells FlightGlobal this was done through Spirit’s attorneys, rather than the court.
Johnson adds that South African Mooney International is separate from the Texas maker of small aircraft that goes by the same name but says his firm holds a purchase and sales contract to acquire the Texas Mooney, with a closing date of 30 June.
Mooney in Texas could not immediately be reached for comment.
Johnson says the $3.1 billion bid covers assets including 48 jets, real estate and intellectual property.
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