Spirit cleared to sell its last remaining 27 aircraft for $668 million — what's left to sell, and where does the money go?

While the sale represents the most valuable remaining property that Spirit has available to liquidate after it failed to secure financing in May to continue operating, there’s more — much of which has long been abandoned in airports across the country — to be sold.

Here’s what’s left — and where the money goes.

Spirit’s aircraft are only part of the story

The newly approved aircraft deal doesn’t mean $668 million in cash for Spirit. The larger transaction involves creditors taking ownership of aircraft that served as collateral for Spirit’s debt.

But while the airline’s fleet was once its most obvious asset, Spirit’s bankruptcy filings have identified several other pieces of the company that could be monetized, including its takeoff and landing slots.

Spirit had 22 slots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. After Spirit stopped operating them, the slots went through a bankruptcy auction, where JetBlue emerged as the successful bidder. The bankruptcy court approved the transfer, although regulatory approvals are also involved.

That’s potentially significant for the airline industry because LaGuardia is a capacity-constrained airport. The slots aren’t simply pieces of real estate that Spirit can hand over like office furniture; their use remains subject to federal aviation rules.

Spirit also put other physical assets on the auction block, including its 8.3-acre corporate campus, which includes an office complex, hangar, training center and multifamily residential building. The ex-headquarters in Dania Beach, Florida, sold for $93.25 million to an affiliate of the Boston-based hedge fund Hill City Capital.

The airline’s remaining operating assets also include things such as flight simulators, spare engines, ground-service equipment and aircraft-maintenance equipment.

Spirit’s corporate data is also coveted.

Google agreed to pay $10 million for a collection of Spirit’s business data that includes approximately 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, according to Axios. The deal includes business documents, marketing materials, HR information, project-management documents and other corporate records — although the data is supposed to be deidentified before Google receives it and the transaction still requires approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Where does the money go?

Ultimately, Spirit’s asset sales are part of a court-supervised bankruptcy wind-down — turning whatever remains of Spirit into value for the parties with claims against the company.

The $668.1 million from Spirit’s final 27-aircraft sale will largely satisfy claims held by creditors. Twenty-three of Spirit’s aircraft will be sold to Save 2026-B LLC for $567.4 million, and four of the planes will be sold for $100.7 million cash to FTAI Aircraft Leasing Bermuda (2026) Ltd., Bloomberg Law reported.

Save 2026-B is controlled by holders of Spirit’s equipment notes, meaning those creditors are taking ownership of aircraft that served as collateral for the debt Spirit owes them. In effect, they are recovering value from the collateral rather than receiving an equivalent amount of new cash. The remaining four Airbus A321s being sold to the FTAI Aviation affiliate goes into Spirit’s bankruptcy estate.

That cash, along with proceeds from Spirit’s other asset sales, is then subject to the bankruptcy plan’s payment priorities.