Renovation on 4 Spirit airlines planes to be done here
By DONNA THORNTON, Editor
The biggest plane to ever land at the Albertville Regional Airport flew in last Wednesday, as an Airbus A320 — a bright yellow remainder of bankrupt Spirit Airlines’ fleet — came to Aviation Service Partners for refurbishment.
Speaking of big, this biggest aircraft made its way here after a big process made it possible and it could have a big impact on the airport’s future.
“This is huge step for us,” said Airport Director Mark Chesnut. This plane – the first of four expected to come to APS in the coming months – is expected to get a makeover for a new buyer to put them back in the air. “It’s been completely gutted,” Chesnut said, with no seats remaining in the plane. Each airline, he explained, has their own design for cabin and cockpit; a new owner likely will do a complete renovation.
The engine has or will be removed to be worked on elsewhere, he said, and exterior repainting would have to be done at another location but the interior work can be done here and will provide jobs for specially trained personnel.
Doing this work, Chesnut hopes, will bring additional work of this sort to the city’s airport.
Had the opportunity arisen a couple of years ago, Albertville wouldn’t have been in the picture. Chesnut said tariffs were in place at the state, county and city level that would have caused made Albertville a fly-by as this kind of project went to Mississippi or another state. “It made it impossible,” he said, for the airport to attract this kind of business.
But state Rep. Brock Colvin championed House Bill 253 in 2025 to exempt certain aircraft sales and aircraft parts from sales, use, and lease taxes, with the support of Rep. Jeana Ross and Sen. Wes Kitchens, and it passed.
“Their work helped to position Alabama to compete strongly for aviation and aerospace investment,” Albertville city leaders posted on the city’s Facebook page. “We’re also proud that the City and Marshall County took action by approving local incentives that helped make this opportunity a reality.”
“Brock Colvin has been a huge supporter of the airport,” Chesnut said. After the state passed legislation, he said, the city and county took similar steps, putting Albertville’s airport in the running for this kind of business.
The former Spirit plane and the others expected at the airport will remain parked in front of the ASP hangar, he said, until the planes are sold and work on them is done. It could be as long as a year, he said, or they could sell at anytime. He said the four planes expected here are about as many as the airport can accommodate.
The ramp there will support the weight of the planes; at another ramp at the airport, the plane would have sunk into the asphalt. Chesnut explained the parking lot, just like a highway, is constructed to accommodate certain maximum weights, just as the airport’s runways will accommodate certain size planes.
The Airbus A320 is the largest plane to land at the airport, he said, and without runway modifications it will be the biggest that lands there.
An Airbus A320, once part of the now-bankrupt Spirit Airlines fleet, flew into Albertville Regional Airport on July 15 to be refurbished at Aviation Service Partners. It’s the biggest airplane to fly into the Albertville airport and one of four expected to fly here for work. Photo by DEVIN ODOM l Special to the Leader
