Minnesota’s Sun Country moots IPO plans while cutting jobs

US low-cost carrier, Sun Country Airlines (SY, Minneapolis/St. Paul), plans to make another push for an initial public offering in 2021 if travel demand picks up, says Chief Executive Officer Jude Bricker. Bolstered by its cargo service for minority shareholder Amazon.com, the Minnesota-based airline also plans to increase its cargo fleet in November to twelve B737-800(BCF), Bricker told Bloomberg. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Sun Country already operates a cargo fleet of eleven B737-800(BCF)s at present, including one owned aircraft and ten leased from GECAS. This comes as the airline last week announced it was cutting 112 jobs or about 7% of its workforce as US federal aid stopped at the end of September and passenger bookings remained low due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Most of the reduction was due to attrition, or not hiring for vacancies, but 18 employees were directly affected, with nine offered other positions. None were front-line workers, such as pilots, flight attendants or ground crew workers, the Star Tribune newspaper reported. Bricker did not expect further staffing reductions but acknowledged the industry continued to face considerable uncertainty. “Our hope is that with continued financial discipline, we will be in the best position to capture a rebound in demand, particularly for winter and spring break travel. The coming months will give us a much clearer picture about what demand looks like going forward,” he said. Sun Country received USD60 million in federal aid under the CARES Act, which helped it achieve a small operating profit in 2Q2020. The airline’s bookings began to rebound slightly in June, but flattened out in July, as new COVID-19 hot spots emerged around the United States. Sun Country’s revenue is down more than 50% year-on-year. Similarly, bookings remain about half of what they were a year ago. Bricker predicted Sun Country’s summer business next year would be 20% smaller than in 2019. By the end of 2021, however, the carrier expected to operate at the same size as it did before the pandemic, led by a rebound in leisure markets, Bloomberg reported.