2022 marks 40 years since Sun Country Airlines was founded. The American ultra-low-cost carrier has undergone several changes, including major bankruptcies and revivals. Today, the airline has established itself as a leisure carrier and cargo operator for Amazon.
The phases
Sun Country Airlines was established in June 1982 and is based in Minneapolis-St Paul Airport, its hub. The airline first took to the skies in January 1983 using a Boeing 727-200. The carrier was founded by former employees of Braniff Airlines, which shut down the same year, and quickly entered the leisure market.
Now in its 40th year of operation, Sun Country looks very different from its previous iterations. In its early years, the airline operated dozens of 727s and larger aircraft like the Douglas DC-10 family to serve the highest-demand routes such as Minneapolis-Las Vegas.
Less than a decade later, in 1991, Sun Country had drastically increased revenues and was looking to double its fleet and workforce. However, it soon began running into headwinds, despite becoming a scheduled carrier in 1999.
The first major blow came in the post-9/11 airline recession, which saw Sun Country enter its first recession. However, the December 2001 suspension…
