Sun Country retires jet, delays 737-900 service

“Even with this deferral, we’ll experience some unit cost pressures associated with lower utilization of our passenger fleet until we’re able to catch up our staffing to our fleet, which should occur around the second quarter of 2026,” he said.

Despite having too many aircraft and a pinch for parts, Bricker said he expected Sun Country’s charter segment to perform well through the rest of 2025, and that the company “continues to deliver high levels of free cash yield.”

“Currently, we plan to continue to deliver with net debt levels expected to fall below zero at some point in 2028,” he said. “However, we have the liquidity and balance sheet headroom to take advantage of any opportunities, including share repurchases using the $25 million of repurchase authority recently granted by our board.”

Worsening supply chain woes

Supply chain challenges have recently led some airlines and lessors to dismantle newer aircraft models for spare parts.

Ongoing reliability issues with Pratt & Whitney’s PW1500G engines have been a critical contributor to the state of the supply chain. Longer maintenance has led to multiple aircraft groundings and increased demand for spare engines.

This paired with large backlogs in overall aircraft production has crippled the sector, causing airlines to extend use of existing aircraft.

Maintenance technician shortages

Other challenges in aviation’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry have also persisted since the pandemic years, primarily due to shortages of skilled labor.

While the industry has taken action to address the issue, the near-term future looks like it’s going to be difficult. A workforce gap is projected to cause a 20% shortfall on maintenance techs in 2028, according to a 2024 Pipeline Report by the Aviation Technician Education Council.

Although currently bleak, some industry insiders like the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) have suggested this crisis could be a catalyst for increased wages and greater collaboration between industry stakeholders.

AIM President Jason Pfaff told AirlineGeeks in an interview earlier this year that the situation would get worse before it got better.

“If it’s a nine-inning game, I’d say we’re probably in the third inning,” Pfaff said in the February interview. “It will get more challenging. But again, from our perspective, at least from some of the conversations we’re having, this could also be a catalyst for a lot of really exciting change in our industry as well.”