Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines attributed its lower first quarter profit to rising airport fees and maintenance costs.
The double-digit increase in landing fees is the result of expiring COVID-era federal funding that propped up airports at a time when U.S. terminals were handling far fewer flights.
Sun Country’s top executives also said they expect maintenance expenses to remain high throughout 2024.
The budget carrier on Tuesday reported net income of $35.3 million on revenue of $311 million, a 7.9% decrease in net income compared with the same quarter in 2023.
Maintenance expenses rose 29% and landing fees and airport rent rates are up nearly 35% for the three-month period ended March 31.
“Maintenance costs are going to stay a bit elevated like this through the rest of the year,” Dave Davis, president and chief financial officer, told analysts Tuesday. He attributed the higher costs to “some intentional changes” in the company’s maintenance program this year.
“That’s going to likely persist or it will persist based on our plan through 2024,” Davis said.
The expired federal funding kept rent rates lower that they otherwise would have been given the rapid decline of landings during the pandemic, Davis said. “That aid that they received really ran out fully in 2023 and we’re now sort of bearing the consequence of full market rates without that subsidy.”