Airbus Test-flies Spirit Airlines' First A321neo

DALLAS — Miramar, Florida-based ULCC Spirit Airlines (NK) is soon to take delivery of its first Airbus A321neo, whose first test flight took place today April 17, 2023.

The type was seen wearing NK's standard yellow livery and registration D-AVZU, which is Airbus' test registration. The aircraft will later be reregistered to N702NK, with MSN 11328.

During today's test flight, Airbus pilots and mechanics checked the airframe's navigational and radio navigational systems. The route can be found on Flightradar24's website.

The aircraft climbed to an initial cruising altitude of 31,000 feet (FL310, 9450m), then up to the A321neo's service ceiling, 39,000 feet (FL390, 11900m). After some time spent at cruising altitude, D-AVZU started to descend and do a touch-and-go maneuver at Hamburg Airport's (HAM) runway 05 to test the ILS approach.

The NK A321neo finally headed back to XFW airport and did a full-stop landing there.

Spirit Airlines

The carrier was founded in 1980 as Charter One Airlines. They had various models of DC-9 and Convair CV-580 aircraft.

Then in 1992, the airline was rebranded as Spirit Airlines. NK operates an all-Airbus fleet made up of A319ceos, A320ceos, A321neos, and A321ceos, and it has A319neos and A321neos on order.

The airline has 196 airframes, with an average age of 6.8 years, according to AeroTransport.org.

Featured photo: Dirk Grothe, used with permission