Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Aircraft Fuel
In the past, we have not experienced sustained material difficulties with fuel availability, and we currently expect to be able to obtain fuel at prevailing prices in quantities sufficient to meet our future needs. Pursuant to our capacity purchase agreements, United, Delta, American and Alaska have agreed to bear the economic risk of fuel price
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fluctuations on our contracted flights. We bear the economic risk of fuel price fluctuations on our prorate and SWC operations. For each of the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, approximately 16%, 13% and 13% of our total flying agreements revenue was derived from prorate agreements and SWC. For the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, the average price per gallon of aircraft fuel was $3.00, $3.19 and $3.70, respectively. For illustrative purposes only, we have estimated the impact of the market risk of fuel price fluctuations on our prorate and SWC operations using a hypothetical increase of 25% in the price per gallon we purchase. Based on this hypothetical assumption, we would have incurred an additional $30.1 million, $21.9 million and $21.5 million in fuel expense for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
Interest Rates
As of December 31, 2025, our long-term debt secured by aircraft and spare engines had fixed interest rates. We currently intend to finance the acquisition of aircraft through long-term debt. Changes in interest rates may impact our actual cost to acquire future aircraft. To the extent we place new aircraft in service under our capacity purchase agreements with United, Delta, American, Alaska or other carriers, our capacity purchase agreements currently provide that reimbursement rates will be adjusted to reflect the interest rates effective at the closing of the respective aircraft financing. As such, a hypothetical 50 basis point change in market interest rates would not have a material effect on our financial results. At December 31, 2025, of the $200.6 million in unsecured debt payable to Treasury, $95.4 million had a fixed interest rate of 1.0% and the remaining $105.2 million had a variable interest rate of the applicable Secured Overnight Financing Rate ("SOFR") plus 2.0%. The interest rate under the $95.4 million unsecured loans is scheduled to increase to the applicable SOFR rate plus 2.0% upon the fifth anniversary of each disbursement. We received disbursements under these unsecured loans from January 2021 through April 2021. We use the effective interest rate method to record interest expense assuming the unsecured loans are outstanding for the full 10-year term.
Labor and Inflation Risk
The global economy has experienced, and continues to experience high rates of inflation. We cannot predict how long these inflationary pressures will continue, or how they may change over time, but we expect to see continued impacts on the global economy and our Company.
As a result, our costs have become, and we expect they will continue to be, subject to inflationary pressures, and we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases under our capacity purchase agreements. Salaries, wages and benefits expense represented 45.3% of our total operating expense for year ended December 31, 2025. For illustrative purposes, a hypothetical increase of 25% to our salaries, wages and benefits during the year ended December 31, 2025, would have increased our operating expenses by approximately $389.8 million.
Our inability or failure to offset a material increase in costs due to inflation and/or labor costs could harm our business, financial condition and operating results. Additionally, in the event we are unable to hire and retain qualified pilots or other operational personnel, including flight attendants and maintenance technicians, we may be unable to operate requested flight schedules under our capacity purchase agreements, which could result in a reduction in revenue and operating inefficiencies, such as incremental new-hire training costs, and could harm our business, financial condition and operating results.