Sun Country Airlines Boeing 737.
Sun Country, which is based out of Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), has had an interesting history. They made headlines when announcing they would start flying from Minneapolis to London with a stopover in Gander using a Boeing 737 and once again when their owner Tom Petters turned out to be running a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme. Ever since the airline declared bankruptcy after Petters was removed, there has been speculation on if someone might buy the airline out. Now the airline is profitable and it looks like they are slowly looking for a new owner.
Sun Country CEO Stan Gadek told the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal that the airline, “will be sold, but a deal is not imminent.” Back in March a filing was made in the bankruptcy case of Petters. Gadek states that there have been interested parties, but they are waiting for the right buyer.
Godek stated that Sun Country is looking at the possibility of flying to Hawaii, but they are not fully committed yet. The airline is also hoping to expand their charter flights especially with the military. Sun Country is hoping their up coming flight to Germany will highlight to the US Department of Defense their ability to fly internationally. It is likely that Sun Country could undercut other charter operations, using the Boeing 737 instead of larger aircraft (like Omni International’s DC-10s). However, the military would need to be alright with the additional flight time, since the Boeing 737 requires a stop-over on the way to Europe. This also could be a move towards Sun Country bringing on larger aircraft types.
I am not really sure who could be a good buyer for Sun Country. I wondered if Southwest Airlines might be interested, but shortly after I hypothesized, Southwest announced their purchase of AirTran — so I was a little off. Who do you think would make a good buyer for Sun Country?
Thanks Rob for the tip!
Image: MSPdude
Virgin American's RED where you can order food and drink right at your seat.
In an age where almost everyone has an Debit or Credit Card and that airlines are charging for more things on flights than just movies and alcohol, it seems obvious that airlines should be taking credit cards in flight.
Going cashless has many benefits (not having to have cash on the plane, don’t have to ask for change, encourages people to spend more, etc), but some flight attendants are worried what happens if the card reader doesn’t work? And there are concerns that the credit cards will slow down service.
Although airlines that have already implemented the service show there is a learning curve, but once learned, service can actually pick up.
Virgin America probably has the coolest system where you can order items on the entertainment module in the seat back and actually swipe your credit card there.
Current American cashless airlines:
* United Airlines: Since late April
* AirTran
* American Airlines by June 1
* JetBlue
* AirTran
* Southwest Airlines
* Sun country Airlines
* Frontier Airlines
* Alaska Airlines
* USA3000
* MidWest Airlines
* Virgin America
There could be more — there doesn’t seem to be a full list of airlines and I tried to search down as many as I could.
Although the additional charges might be bothersome, at least most airlines are making an effort to make paying them easier.
Image: NotCot.com
Landing at Branson, MO's BKG airport.
Branson, Missouri is the home to the United State’s first privately supported airport. The $155 million airport is the first of 552 airports with commercial air service to receive no federal funding.
The town only has about 6,000 residents, but has over 50 theaters, ten museums, and a few other odds and ends that draw about 8million tourists to the area each year.
In 1996 Congress changed legislation that allowed airports to try and win over private investors and Branson will show if this is a feasible business plan. SO far two other airports have unsuccessfully tried to make airport privatization work (Midway Airport and Steward Airport). Currently only low-cost carriers Sun Country Airlines and AirTran Airways fly into Branson Airport (BKG).
There seems to be a lot of money making potential in airports (selling name rights, hotels, shops, restraunts, business deals, etc) and although airports around the globe have made leaps and bounds as far as amenities avliable, I wonder what new ideas a privatly-held, purely profit driven, airport can come up with.
Source: Dallas News Image: FlyBranson.com
