Full Video: Sun Country Airlines CEO at Skift Aviation Forum 2022

25.08.2023 - 14:32 / skift.com / Scott Kirby / Rashaad Jorden / Brian Sumers / Jude Bricker / Airlines

Sun Country Airlines CEO Jude Bricker believes it’s premature to draw firm conclusions about the emergence of new travel patterns seven months into the travel industry’s recovery. But Bricker said at the recent Skift Aviation Forum that surging airfares are changing travelers’ behaviors, including driving more consumers to fly on Tuesdays instead of the weekend.

Bricker also touched on the company’s cargo operations, its decision to expand flights out of its Minneapolis hub and why he doesn’t believe pilot shortages are a major concern for Sun Country.

Watch the full video of Bricker’s interview with Skift Editor-at-Large Brian Sumers below. You can also read the transcript below.

Brian Sumers: Hi, Jude.

Jude Bricker: Hey, Brian.

Sumers: I have been looking forward to this for a long time. First, a note for all of you, we’re taking audience questions on the app, and I want you all to know that Jude is one of the only CEOs I’ve ever met who answers almost every question honestly.

Bricker: Wow.

Sumers: So he is worth the time to ask a question to.

Bricker: That’s not fair to my industry.

Sumers: Well there’s a lot of spin that happens in this industry. All right, so I get to ask the questions first.

Bricker: Still trying to …

Sumers: I got a question for you. We’ll give some background in a second. But if anybody listened to Scott Kirby on the United Airlines earnings call a few weeks ago, he said that the ultra low-cost model is a Ponzi scheme.

Bricker: I love you lead with that.

Sumers: He said that if companies like yours can’t grow every year, they’re not going to be able to outrun their costs and they’re not going to be low costs anymore. Are you running a Ponzi scheme, sir?

Bricker: I like your question on the back of your intro, which said that about airline CEOs in general. Scott’s always had the best model that you could possibly have in airlines when he was with America West and American and now United. It’s always the perfect one. I think that Scott has disparaged the [ultra low-cost] space for many years, not just with the pilot situation we’re in now. Look, a couple things — one is, no, we’re not. I think what he’s getting at, which is I think really interesting is that, do [ultra low-cost carriers] depend on growth in order to maintain their cost structure.

In the case of Sun Country, we don’t. I mean, we’re a mature maintenance organization. We buy used airplanes. Our cost structure, keeping it low isn’t dependent on adding new airplanes and new pilots and keeping juniorization. The company’s been around for 40 years. So, no, in that regard. I think what also might be interesting is the demand for [ultra low-cost carriers] is changing with all the things that we’ve talked about like