America's Smallest Discount Airline Wants to Emulate EasyJet With Cabin Retrofit Project
Skift Take
Sun Country wants it both ways. It wants to add fees and reduce legroom for some passengers. But it also wants to keep the brand equity it earned when it was a full-service airline. Can this strategy work?
A sleepy U.S. airline with a strong following in Minnesota is getting a makeover as it prepares to expand into more cities.
Minneapolis-based Sun County Airlines announced Wednesday it plans to spend $20 million to retrofit its cabins, adding new economy seats and streaming entertainment passengers can watch on their own devices, while it trims legroom for some customers and removes first class. The project marks the first major customer-facing move for Sun Country since private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC acquired it early this year. Customers should start seeing changes in 2019.
Sun Country, which by year-end will have 30 Boeing 737s, is not a well-known brand outside of Minneapolis. But that's changing as newish management, led by former Allegiant Air executive Jude Bricker, who joined in July, 2017, reshapes where it flies. While Minneapolis is still its main hub, Sun Country is expanding to routes like Los Angeles to Honolulu, Seattle to Anchorage and Dallas to Las Vegas. Bricker likes to chase routes where there's so much demand larger carriers can't offer enough seats to satisfy it.
Cost control is important, and even before Apollo bought the airline, Sun Country added fees for passeng
