Discount carrier Spirit Airlines, which is struggling to return to profitability, announced Monday it is furloughing 260 pilots as it moves to defer the deliveries of new Airbus jetliners and adjust staffing amid the continuing grounding of planes for engine inspections.

“Unfortunately, we had to make the difficult decision to furlough pilots given the grounded aircraft in our fleet and our deferral of future deliveries,” said CEO Ted Christie in a statement made public early Monday.

The furloughs will start Sept. 1, the company said. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents the airline’s cockpit crews, had no immediate comment.

“We are doing everything we can to protect team members while balancing our responsibility to return to positive cash flow and thrive as a healthy company with long-term growth prospects,” Christie said in the statement.

But labor costs are among the biggest expenses facing airline managements along with the fuel to power the planes. Both line items have been on the rise industrywide, particularly after airlines including Spirit negotiated new labor contracts that delivered pay raises for crew members and others in the workforce. Delaying aircraft deliveries is another tactic that will help Spirit control its expenses.

A ‘reset’ for the business

“Deferring these aircraft gives us the opportunity to reset the business and focus on the core airline while we adjust to changes in the competitive environment,” Christie added.

The furloughs and delivery delays are the latest maneuvers deployed by management as Spirit — which is the predominant airline in passengers carried to and from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport — tries to cut its financial losses caused by rising costs, aggressive pricing by rivals and other factors.Earlier this year, a federal judge rejected a bid by New York-based JetBlue Airways to acquire Spirit for $3.8 billion on antitrust grounds.

According to Monday’s statement, the Spirit aircraft orders affected include those scheduled to be delivered between the second quarter of 2025 through the end of 2026.

Those deliveries will be taken five years later between 2030 and 2031.

The revised delivery schedule does not affect so-called direct-lease planes set to arrive in the middle of next year, or those scheduled to come online from 2027 to 2029.

The move is expected to buttress the airline’s cash position by $340 million over the next two years, management said.

As of the end of last year, Spirit had 205 planes in operation, according to a year-end filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For the fourth quarter, the airline posted a net loss of $183.7 million.

The airline announced late last month that it is receiving monthly payments through the end of this year from International Aero, the maker of Pratt & Whitney engines as the result of a recall that has resulted in multiple groundings of Spirit planes for inspections.

The compensation will give the airline an injection of $150 million to $200 million, Spirit management has said.

After the takeover bid was rejected by a federal judge after the Department of Justice sued to stop it, JetBlue agreed to pay Spirit a breakup fee of $69 million.