Could SWA be kicking the tires at Suncountry

[FA Mikey]

Suncounty is being shopped by its court appointed trustee. A former Airtran CFO running the company with some shared commonalities and access to slot restricted DCA. Could SWA be interested, or is it just to soon with the Airtan merger on going?

From the article:

With his airline on the auction block, Sun Country Airlines CEO Stan Gadek said Thursday that the Minnesota-based carrier is back to profitability and is poised for growth.

Gadek also acknowledged that the airline is being courted by potential investors but said "nothing is imminent" regarding Sun Country's sale.

"Eventually we will have a change in ownership, I just can't say who it will be," Gadek said during a morning presentation hosted by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.

full story here

 

[num1bearsfan]

SY is just a tiny airline so it would not be impossible to bring it into the WN brand even with the FL deal taking place.. They have a small fleet of -800 aircraft that Southwest could see as useful, and I believe even some valuable international slots as well.

 

[gizmo_sc]

Sun Country also go a few slots at DCA. I realize SWA will get some with FL but I am sure more could be put to good use.

 

[FutureUScapt]

SY has exactly one pair of DCA slots.

Furthermore, those slots are AIR-21 slots which means that they do not automatically transfer over to the acquiring carrier, but are rather put back into the pot where carriers can then (re)submit applications for them. In fact, this is how SY acquired these slots in the first place, as they were originally part of YX's portfolio, but they did not transfer over to the combined entity when RAH merged F9/YX.

 

[eolesen]

I think it's safe to say that WN is going to stay focused on finishing the FL deal before they do any other acquisitions. SY is so far off the competitive radar, I'd even forgotten they were still flying until I saw one of their planes at DFW last week...