A Southern District of New York US Bankruptcy Court judge has authorised SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) to sell four A321-200s without engines to Spectre Air Capital.

The four airframes are OY-KBB (msn 1642), LN-RKI (msn 1817), OY-KBK (msn 1587), and OY-KBE (msn 1798). OY-KBB is 21.7 years old, LN-RKI is 20.95 years old, OY-KBK is 21.91 years old, and OY-KBE is 21.01 years old. All four aircraft remain at Marana in storage and sold on an “as is/where is” basis, free and clear of any and all liens, claims, and interests.

Spectre Air Capital is a privately held Texas-based entity specialising in selling and leasing mid-life passenger and freighter aircraft, engines, and long-term maintenance. The ch-aviation fleets module shows Spectre owns 29 and manages 30 aircraft, primarily a mix of Boeing widebodies and narrowbodies, but also now six A321-200s and five EMB-145LRs.

"One of the cornerstones of SAS FORWARD (the transformation plan) is a redesigned airline fleet," the SAS filing seeking the court's approval reads. "As the airframes are no longer in use by the debtors, the debtors obtained an estimate of the part-out of the airframes and solicited sale proposals on the airframes from several different interested parties. Of the two bids received by the debtors, the bid submitted by Spectre was determined to be the more favourable approach compared to a part out of the airframes. Following receipt of that bid, SAS and Spectre entered into extensive negotiations, which led to the negotiation of a letter of intent (LOI)."

Attachments to the court filings show the LOI was signed on March 20, 2023, by Håkan Arvidsson, Director of Aircraft Acquisition and Trading at SAS and Jordan E Jaffe, CEO and Manager at Spectre. At SAS's request, Judge Michael E Wiles ordered that certain information relating to the sale, including the proposed purchase price, deposit, and scheduled delivery date, not be publicly disclosed because it is commercially sensitive.

SAS voluntarily entered into the Chapter 11 process in July 2022. At the time, the Nordic carrier operated a fleet of 100 aircraft, including 20 owned aircraft, 63 aircraft under operating leases,15 aircraft subject to Japanese operating leases with a call option, and two loan-financed aircraft. Since then, excluding a large number of aircraft at the airline on wet lease arrangement, SAS Scandinavian has shrunk its fleet of owned and dry leased aircraft to 72 aircraft.