Sun Country Airlines Reports Third Quarter 2025 Results
Revenue of $256 million, highest third quarter on record (1)
GAAP diluted EPS of $0.03, operating income of $10 million and margin of 3.9%
Adj. diluted EPS (2) of $0.07, adj. operating income (2) of $12 million and adj. margin (2) of 4.8%
Thirteenth consecutive profitable quarter
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sun Country Airlines Holdings, Inc. (“Sun Country Airlines,” “Sun Country,” the “Company”) ( NASDAQ: SNCY) today reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2025.
“Sun Country is pleased to report our thirteenth consecutive profitable quarter with GAAP EPS of $0.03 and adjusted diluted EPS (2) of $0.07,” said Jude Bricker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sun Country. “The quarter marked a significant operational milestone as the company completed its cargo segment transformation. By September, we had deployed our full fleet of 20 freighter aircraft for Amazon, representing a 14% expansion in total operating aircraft compared to the beginning of the year. This achievement reflects the exceptional dedication and effort of our team. Beyond operational growth, we continued to return value to shareholders, completing $10 million in stock repurchases during the period while still retaining $15 million in share repurchase authority. These results underscore our ability to simultaneously grow operations, maintain profitability and reward shareholders.”
Overview of Third Quarter
Amounts presented in the tables above may not recalculate due to rounding
For the quarter ended September 30, 2025, Sun Country reported net income of $1.6 million and income before income tax of $2.2 million, on $255.5 million of revenue. Adjusted income before income tax (2) for the quarter was $5.0 million. GAAP operating income during the quarter was $9.9 million, while adjusted operating income (2) was $12.4 million, and GAAP operating margin was 3.9% and adjusted operating margin (2) was 4.8% .
“Our distinctive business strategy continued to deliver strong results in the third quarter, with the combination of cargo and charter operations reaching their highest revenue contribution since late 2020,” said Torque Zubeck, Chief Financial Officer. “Cargo and charter combined to generate 40% of our total revenue this quarter. This diversified revenue stream provides a stable foundation that has limited exposure to fuel price volatility - we view this as a key competitive advantage over our industry peers. In addition, our scheduled service business exhibited strong momentum throughout the quarter. August performance demonstrated improving demand, with average fares rising five percent year-over-year while load factors increased nearly three percentage points. September trends accelerated further, delivering nearly eight percent fare growth and load factor improvements exceeding three points compared to the prior year period.”
Notable Highlights
Capacity
System block hours flown during the third quarter of 2025 increased by 3.8% year-over-year. This was mainly due to the 33.7% increase in cargo block hours and the 11.1% increase in charter block hours. Scheduled service block hours decreased 10.9% to support the significant growth in cargo. Scheduled service ASMs are expected to decline year-over-year in the fourth quarter 2025 by approximately 8 to 9% as the Company annualizes cargo segment growth.
Revenue
The Company reported total revenue of $255.5 million for the third quarter, which was 2.4% greater than the third quarter of 2024. Scheduled service TRASM (3) of 10.6 cents increased 1.6% year-over-year, while scheduled service ASMs decreased 10.2%. The third quarter 2025 total fare per scheduled passenger of $143 was higher than third quarter 2024 by 1.1%, while scheduled service load factor increased 0.6 percentage points during that same time period. The Company’s third quarter charter revenue was $58.7 million, a 15.6% year-over-year increase which exceeded the 11.1% increase in charter block hours.
In the third quarter of 2025, cargo revenue was $44 million, a 50.9% increase versus the third quarter of 2024, on a 33.7% increase in cargo block hours. This improvement was primarily driven by the increase in the number of cargo aircraft in service and the new Amazon contract rates which began to go into effect in June 2024.
Cost
Total GAAP operating expenses increased 3.6% year-over-year on a 3.8% increase in total block hours. Cost per available seat mile (CASM) in the third quarter increased 10.3% while adjusted CASM (4) increased 5.2%. Unit costs are expected to remain elevated throughout the remainder of this year due to the reduction of scheduled service flying to allow for increased cargo flying. This will continue to put pressure on unit costs until the Company adds back scheduled service later in 2026. During the quarter, salaries, wages and benefits increased 15.0% year-over-year mainly due to growth in the number of pilots, a contractual pilot wage scale increase that occurred at the end of 2024 and the new flight attendant contract that went into effect in March 2025. Maintenance expense increased 13.5% year-over-year mainly due to the occurrence of unplanned maintenance events.
Balance Sheet and Liquidity
Total liquidity (5) was $299 million on September 30, 2025, while the Company’s net debt (6) was $406 million.
Fleet
As of September 30, 2025, the Company had 45 aircraft in its passenger service fleet, 20 freighter aircraft in its cargo fleet and five aircraft on lease to unaffiliated airlines.
Guidance for Fourth Quarter 2025
Conference Call & Webcast Details
Sun Country Airlines will host a conference call to discuss its third quarter 2025 results at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, October 30, 2025. A live broadcast of the conference call will be available via the investor relations section of Sun Country Airlines’ website at https://ir.suncountry.com/news-events/events-and-presentations. The online replay will be available on the same website approximately one hour after the call.
About Sun Country Airlines
Sun Country Airlines is a new breed of hybrid low-cost air carrier, whose mission is to connect guests to their favorite people and places, to create lifelong memories and transformative experiences. Sun Country dynamically and synergistically deploys shared resources for our passenger service (including scheduled service and charter) and cargo service segments. Based in Minnesota, we focus on serving leisure and visiting friends and relatives (“VFR”) passengers and charter customers and providing cargo service to Amazon, with flights throughout the United States and to destinations in Mexico, Central America, Canada, and the Caribbean. For photos, b-roll and additional company information, visit https://www.stories.suncountry.com/multimedia.
End Notes
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” and, in each case, their negative or other various or comparable terminology. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenue, projected costs, prospects, plans, objectives of management, and expected market growth are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements could relate to the following, among other items:
These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements reflect our views with respect to future events as of the date of this press release and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press release and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or review publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. You should read this press release completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, or investments we may undertake. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements. Additional information concerning certain factors is contained in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Company’s Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We sometimes use information that is derived from the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, but that is not presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe these non-GAAP measures provide a meaningful comparison of our results to others in the airline industry and our prior year results. Investors should consider these non-GAAP financial measures in addition to, and not as a substitute for, our financial performance measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Further, our non-GAAP information may be different from the non-GAAP information provided by other companies. We believe certain charges included in our operating expenses on a GAAP basis make it difficult to compare our current period results to prior periods as well as future periods and guidance. The tables below show a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures used in this document to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.
NM - not meaningful
1 – In March 2025, the Company's flight attendants, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement. Upon ratification of the new agreement, eligible flights attendants became entitled to a one-time ratification bonus. Eligibility requirements stipulate that flight attendants must be on the seniority list as of the ratification date, have completed probation, and hold an active status in order to receive the bonus payment. Ratification bonuses were paid to all eligible flight attendants during the nine months ended September 30, 2025, per the collective bargaining agreement. Certain portions of the ratification bonus are paid in future periods as flight attendants on the seniority list as of the ratification date complete their probationary period or change their status from inactive to active. The ratification bonus and payroll related tax expense were included within Special Items, net.
NM - not meaningful
1 –See Note 1 on page 7 of this release
The following tables presents key operating statistics and metrics for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025 and 2024.
1 – See note 3 in end notes
2 – See note 4 in end notes
3 – Percentage point difference
1 – See note 3 in end notes
2 – See note 4 in end notes
3 – Percentage point difference
NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Operating Income Margin, Adjusted Income Before Income Tax, Adjusted Pre-tax Margin, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Net Income per Share, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin
Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Operating Income Margin, Adjusted Income Before Income Tax, Adjusted Pre-tax Margin, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Net Income per share, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are non-GAAP measures included as supplemental disclosure because we believe they are useful indicators of our operating performance. Derivations of Operating Income and Net Income are well recognized performance measurements in the airline industry that are frequently used by our management, as well as by investors, securities analysts and other interested parties in comparing the operating performance of companies in our industry.
The measures described above have limitations as analytical tools. Some of the limitations applicable to these measures include: they do not reflect the impact of certain cash and non-cash charges resulting from matters we consider not to be indicative of our ongoing operations; and other companies in our industry may calculate these non-GAAP measures differently than we do, limiting each measure’s usefulness as a comparative measure. Because of these limitations, the following non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for performance measures calculated in accordance with GAAP and may not be the same as or comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies due to the possible differences in the method of calculation and in the items being adjusted.
For the aforementioned reasons, Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Operating Income Margin, Adjusted Income Before Income Tax, Adjusted Pre-tax Margin, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Net Income per Share, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin have significant limitations which affect their use as indicators of our profitability. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this information.
Adjusted CASM
Adjusted CASM is a non-GAAP measure derived from CASM by excluding fuel costs, costs related to our cargo operations, stock based compensation, certain unplanned engine events, depreciation and amortization recognized on certain assets that generate lease income, certain commissions and other costs of selling our vacations product from this measure as these costs are unrelated to our airline operations and improve comparability to our peers. Adjusted CASM is an important measure used by management and by our board of directors in assessing quarterly and annual cost performance. Adjusted CASM is also a measure commonly used by industry analysts and we believe it is an important metric by which they compare our airline to others in the industry, although other airlines may exclude certain other costs in their calculation of Adjusted CASM. The measure is also the subject of frequent questions from investors.
Adjusted CASM excludes fuel costs. By excluding volatile fuel costs that are outside of our control from our unit metrics, we believe that we have better visibility into the results of operations and our non-fuel cost initiatives. Our industry is highly competitive and is characterized by high fixed costs, so even a small reduction in non-fuel operating costs can lead to a significant improvement in operating results. In addition, we believe that all domestic carriers are similarly impacted by changes in jet fuel costs over the long run, so it is important for management and investors to understand the impact and trends in company-specific cost drivers, such as labor rates, aircraft and maintenance costs, and productivity, which are more controllable by management.
We have excluded costs related to the cargo operations and depreciation recognized on certain assets that generate lease income as these operations do not create ASMs. We have entered into a series of transactions where we serve as a lessor. As of September 30, 2025, we leased or subleased five aircraft. Adjusted CASM further excludes other adjustments, as defined in the relevant reporting period, that are not representative of the ongoing costs necessary to our airline operations and may improve comparability between periods. We also exclude stock compensation expense when computing Adjusted CASM. The Company’s compensation strategy includes the use of stock-based compensation to attract and retain employees and executives and is principally aimed at aligning their interests with those of our stockholders and at long-term employee retention, rather than to motivate or reward operational performance for any particular period. Thus, stock-based compensation expense varies for reasons that are generally unrelated to operational decisions and performance in any period.
As derivations of Adjusted CASM are not determined in accordance with GAAP, such measures are susceptible to varying calculations and not all companies calculate the measures in the same manner. As a result, derivations of Adjusted CASM as presented may not be directly comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Adjusted CASM should not be considered in isolation or as a replacement for CASM. For the aforementioned reasons, Adjusted CASM has significant limitations which affect its use as an indicator of our profitability. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this information.
This press release was published by a CLEAR® Verified individual.