Sun Country Boeing 737-800 (N807SY) taken at SEA.
The rumors surrounding Sun Country’s buy-out have been circulating for quite sometime. I have heard that Delta, AirTran or Southwest might be good candidates for a take over. Out of those three, Southwest seems the most likely.
I spoke with representatives from all three rumored buyers and they each had their own unique way of telling me, “no comment.” That was totally expected, since either they honestly have no interest or this is a hot topic and one of them is not ready to let the cat out of the bag. I have spent the last few days trying to get a hold of someone at Sun Country, but with no success. Either this is a topic they want to avoid or they aren’t so keen talking to bloggers.
Sun Country is based at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP), which Southwest has recently started to fly into. This being a new market, presumably Southwest would want to be able to grow rapidly. With the recent merger of Delta and Northwest (which was based at MSP), there could be Northwest loyalists who aren’t wanting to start flying Delta and looking for a new airline to LUV.
There is also fleet similarities between Sun Country and Southwest. Sun Country flies Boeing 737-700 and -800’s, while Southwest is just steps away from starting to fly the larger -800 among other versions of the 737. Southwest has been looking at flying internationally and taking over Sun Country would allow them to quickly start. Since Southwest is installing satellite based ROW 44 internet, they would have an advantage over other low cost carriers that fly internationally.
Sun Country recently came out of bankruptcy by creating a viable business plan. Although the airline publicly states they feel confident with their future, this would be a good time for another airline to take them over. Sun Country has announced they will be purchasing new aircraft, expanding routes and hiring 100 new employees. That confidence is good for Sun Country’s future and should make them a better value for possible buyers.
Southwest might also want Sun Country to make their books look better. Since Sun Country flies mostly to leisure travel destinations from the very cold MSP, the first quarter is their best. However, the first quarter is Southwest’s weakest. Combining the two is like completing a financial puzzle.
So most things look like a great match. However, there are always two sides to a story and I spoke with Steven Frischling, who writes the blog Flying With Fish, and he sees some issue with this match up. First, purchasing Sun Country wouldn’t mean that Southwest would be getting their aircraft, “While many look at Sun Country’s fleet as compatible with Southwest Airlines, especially with Southwest announcing that they are exploring the 737-800, Sun Country does not own its fleet. All of its 737-700s & -800s appear to be leased. So a purchase of Sun Country would not include aircraft,” he explained.
He also points out that one of the major reasons airlines will buy out another airline is to get slots at a particular airport. However, slots are not that difficult to get at MSP and Southwest wouldn’t need to buy an airline to increase flights. “Sometimes buying an airline for landing slots, fleet, routes or gates makes sense,” Frischling stated. “While Southwest Airlines is changing how it does business, Sun Country offers Southwest Airlines nothing. The airline is not even a competitor.”
So, this might only be a rumor and nothing will come of it, but it is always fun to think about. The old Southwest probably wouldn’t have any interest in Sun Country, but things have been changing over at the Dallas based airline. Will the new Southwest look to take over Sun Country and expand internationally? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
MORE OPINIONS:
* Ben Mutzabaugh with USA Today
* Terry Maxton with Airline Biz Blog
* Reuters
Image: Drewski2112
The Seattle Museum of Flight's Lockheed 1049G Super Constellation (CF-TGE) is towed across East Marginal Way South from Boeing Field into the museum's Airpark. (Ted Huetter/Museum of Flight)
Ah lack of sleep, it bites. Early Saturday morning (we are talking 3am), I was set up to head down to the Boeing Plant Building 2 to check out restored aircraft being stored by the Museum of Flight. Lack of sleep and a full day of activity (flying back from Atlanta), I totally slept through my alarm at 2am…oops.
Luckily, Ted Huetter with the Museum of Flight did not have the same problem and was able to share some photos.
Historic Plant 2 is famous for building so many bombers for World War II. The plant is set to be destroyed to make better use of the land. Inside the plant lived a B-17, B-29 and aLockheed Super Constellation all owned by the Museum of Flight.
Boeing isn’t saying when the building needs to come down, but they gave notice to the Museum of Flight they need to move their planes.
The planes had to cross a busy road and how do you go about doing that? Well, you do it at 3am…that’s how. All three aircraft were moved from old Plant 2 to the museum. The B-29 was moved to a ramp outside of Hangar 7 at Galvin Aviation and will be stored temporarily. The B-17 is being stored in a hangar at Clay Lacy Aviation. Finally the Constellation will be stored at the Airpark.
MORE GOODIES:
* A few photos on the Museum of Flights Facebook
* 27 photos taken by the Museum of Flight on the Seattle PI
* Photo of Boeing Plant 2 from the water
* Destruction of Plant 2 to help environment restoration via Seattle PI
* Photo of the Super Constellation from 1959
This is the amazing view from the Renaissance Concourse Hotel next to Atlanta's airport
I know… what am I doing talking about a hotel on my airline blog? Well don’t worry, it is totally airline related. While chilling with Delta in Atlanta I stayed at the Renaissance Concourse Atlanta Airport Hotel. Yea, the room was really nice, so was the lobby, but that is not why I am writing about it. It is located right next to the airport (and I mean next to the airport).
You are able to sit out on your balcony and enjoy all the action that Atlanta’s airport has to offer. If you aren’t an airline enthusiast, getting a room on the airport side might not suit your fancy (or ears). However, if you love airlines, you can’t find a better place to stay in Atlanta.
Sitting on the balcony, enjoying the planes, maybe add a beer and you are living the life. The only thing I wish they had was Wi-Fi (they have ethernet) internet to enjoy on the balcony.
So next time you are staying in Atlanta, be sure to stay there, you will not regret it. They even offer Plane Spotter Specials! (and no, I was not paid by the hotel to write this…I just wanted to share since it is a pretty unique experience). If you have had a hotel experience like this, please share. I would love to go visit!
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for me to share some pretty cool stuff that I learned and experienced during my time with Delta.
Ryanair Boeing 737-800 (EI-EKK) at Boeing Field before being delivered to Ryanair
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary is known for saying crazy things. Standing seats, paid toilets and more recently flying with only one pilot. This bizarre approach gets him and Ryanair a lot of free publicity. It is a genius way to do things, because it works.
Well O’Leary recently said some very interesting things that was reported by The Guardian and he isn’t getting much attention. It is odd because this is some of O’Leary’s craziest stuff ever: he wants Ryanair to improve in quality.
He told the Guardian that he feels Ryanair is maturing and with growth, they need a new strategy and a new leader. O’Leary feels that the airline needs to talk more about what they can offer versus being the cheapest airline at all costs.
Whoa! What? Does that mean no more crazy rants? Well don’t get too excited, because even though he says he should leave, he also says he won’t leave until the airline doubles in size.
O’Leary stated, “When we are twice the size we are now, at around 400 aircraft, then the growth rate slows down to 2% or 3% per year. The shareholders will want a return. You will need a different management then. We won’t need my dog and pony show, which is about generating publicity. Every company has to move from being the high-growth Robin Hood.”
Well, at least he knows his shenanigans is just a show.
Ryanair has already been moving into larger airports and away from their small airport game plan. They say they want to bring up their image, but I am almost thinking they just want to bring up the price of a ticket and increase their profit.
Love Ryanair or hate them, they have a model that works. They can do almost whatever they want because they charge so little? Why change something that works? If they move out of the crazy realm, I am sure other airlines would be more than happy to step up.
Image: Drewski2112
Boeing's mock up of what the CST-100 will most likely look like. Photo from Boeing.
The Boeing Company has been making things that go into space for quite some time now. Earlier in the week, they announced plans to possibly start sending normal Joe-Schmos into space…for a price.
Boeing and Space Adventures have created a memorandum of agreement regarding the marketing the transportation of passengers on commercial flight board the Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 (or CST-100) to low Earth orbit.
Boeing plans to use the CST-100 to transport crews to the International Space Station, but will also provide room for private individuals, companies and pretty much anyone who isn’t NASA to hitch a ride.
Boeing and Space Adventures have not yet set a price per seat for spaceflight participants, but will do so when full-scale development is under way. Boeing continues to advance its design for the CST-100 spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Space Act Agreement. The spacecraft, which can carry seven people, will be able to fly on multiple launch vehicles and is expected to be operational by 2015.
“We are excited about the potential to offer flights on Boeing’s spacecraft,” said Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures. “With our customer experience and Boeing’s heritage in human spaceflight, our goal is not only to benefit the individuals who fly to space, but also to help make the resources of space available to the commercial sector by bringing the value from space back to Earth.”
At this point there is no cost set up for these flights, but don’t expect them to be cheap.
In my opinion this is awesome. Virgin Galactic is already well on their way to start space tourism and getting a big company like Boeing involved will just up the stakes and create competition.
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