Sun Country Airlines undaunted by major industry disruptions: CEO Jude Bricker

Sun Country Airlines’ model of mixed operations – scheduled passenger, charter and cargo – is shielding it from many of the industry forces that are impacting other US carriers. That was the message from company executives during Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Sun Country’s Q4 earnings call on 1 February. “We are not subject to the major challenges – particularly on the fleet side – that the rest of the industry is dealing with,” says CE Jude Bricker. “We don’t have geared turbofan [engines]. We’re not subject to new aircraft delivery delays. We don’t expect to do any engine performance restoration, so we we aren’t subjected to OEM escalation in 2024. We don’t have the Max 9.” “There’s just not that much pressure on our costs relative to the industry,” he adds. Sun Country reports company-record revenue of $246m during the final three months of 2023, up more than 8% from $227m of revenue generated during the prior-year period. The leisure carrier made a modest $5.6m during Q4, compared with $7.3m the previous year. ”With one exception, we’ve been profitable in every full quarter since going public in March of 2021,” Bricker says. <br/>