What once started as a single plane, carrying passengers from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Las Vegas on January 20, 1983, is now celebrating 40 years of operations and is the 11th largest airline in the United States.
Founded by former Braniff International airline pilots and flight attendants, Sun Country Airlines has been the hometown airline for its home hub, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport since the 1980s.
Sun Country began flying charters from the Midwest to Las Vegas, Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean living up to their name by getting travelers to warm-weather destinations.
Jim Olsen was one of the original pilots that founded the airline.
“We catered the airplane out of my father in law’s rusted out suburban,” Olsen explained to WCCO’s Susie Jones.
Olsen says he was working at Braniff Airlines when he got laid off in 1982 and he and his pilot friends decided to start an airline. Olsen was the first Sun Country CEO from 1982-1983, pilot 1983-1988, and retired from Sun Country in 2007.
Olsen says they laughed when he first proposed the idea.
“And I said, ‘I'm serious, I think we can do this’. And, so I guess you could say the rest is history,” Olsen said.
Now, Sun Country operates 98 routes to 78 airports across the United States, Mexico, Central America, Canada, and the Caribbean.
While the airline has changed ownership several times including the Petters Group Worldwide in 2006, ownership coming out of bankruptcy in 2011 by Cambria, and now by Apollo Global Management, they have continued to call Minneapolis-St. Paul home.
Sun Country, like many of the smaller airlines, has turned to a fee-based model, offering cheaper tickets than the major airlines in return for charging passengers for seats, bags and more.
To celebrate, Sun Country is unveiling a special decal on its aircraft kick off its 40th anniversary.
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