Sun Country Files for Bankruptcy, Will Continue Flying

[[Sun Country Airlines]] filed for bankruptcy on October 6, citing “adverse effects from recent events” at Petters Group Worldwide, which is the primary owner of the carrier (Petters Group owns all of the airline’s voting shares). Those “recent events” refer to the arrest of Tom Petters, founder of Petters Group, on charges of mail and wire fraud. Sun Country was counting on a loan from the Petters Group to cover the airline’s operating costs in October and November. Needless to say, that loan was not delivered.

So where does that leave Sun Country’s passengers? The airline says it will “continue to operate business as usual. We will continue to fly our normal schedule. We will continue to operate under the same guidelines with regards to ticketing, refunds, changes and all other transactions.” That sounds great, and hopefully Sun Country will continue to serve the [[Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – MSP | Minneapolis]] market (for those outside the Twin Cities area, Sun Country, while dwarfed by the presence of [[Northwest]], competes and keeps fares low on leisure routes to places like Cancun and Las Vegas). But with the airline’s major source of cash in what seems like very hot water, it appears the airline will need a fairly significant financial overhaul in order to survive.

As Matt Phillips points out over at the Wall Street Journal’s Middle Seat Terminal blog, Minnesotans can take comfort in knowing [[Southwest]] is coming to Minneapolis next year.