Sun Country stymied by captain availability on way to modest Q3 profit

Sun Country Airlines reports earning $7.6m during q3 as CE Jude Bricker cited the lack of pilots upgrading to captain as a persistent problem. In comparison, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based carrier earned $10.7m in Q3 2022. Sun Country said on 7 November that revenue during the three months ending in September reached $249m – a company record for Q3. That was 12% higher than the previous year’s quarterly total revenue of $222m. ”Due to captain availability, we flew about 3,500 fewer block hours in the third quarter – mostly in July – than the demand environment would have supported with our fleet and the fuel price input,” Bricker says. “We continue to see staffing levels improve, but more slowly than we would like.” The captain bottleneck has caused the all-Boeing 737 operator to tweak its fleet expansion plans. “As growth has moderated based on pilot staffing, we have decided to lease out two additional aircraft that were scheduled to enter our fleet” in tQ4, Bricker says. ”This will delay into service two 737-800s until the first quarter of 2025.” The leisure and charter carrier has been grappling with the captain upgrade issue for several months, lamenting a lack of pilot instructors and first officers willing to upgrade to captain. “For a year now, the issue has not been hiring pilots,” Bricker says. ”And the issue has not been pilot attrition. The issue has been on the upgrade front… We don’t see a shortage of pilot availability at this point.” Compared with last year, the carrier flew 14% more block hours during q3. Executives say boosting aircraft utilisation will be a priority in the months ahead, as Sun Country’s average daily aircraft utilisation was 6.6h during the quarter. <br/>