In January 2026, the latest merger in the US airline industry was announced, and it wasn’t particularly surprising. There’s now an update, as this deal has officially closed. However, among airline mergers, this has to be one of the ones with the fewest implications for customers… at least for now.
Continue reading: Allegiant & Sun Country Merge, As Two Leisure Airlines Seek Synergies
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"among airline mergers, this has to be one of the ones with the fewest implications for customers"
Yep. Never flew either.
Was at MSP earlier this year, and usually see their ‘orange and blue’ planes there, but have never actually flown on Sun Country.
Yeah, I generally prefer more competition, less consolidation in this or any industry, but among the possible airline mergers, this one seems ‘sensible’ as Ben says.
Whaaaaat??? Jet Blue didn’t manipulate one of the board’s and welcome themselves into trying to acquiring one of them and prevent the deal going through???
Jet blue is going to ruin at least two airlines, first spirit and then itself. Quite possible frontier as well.
Maybe this new sun country/allegiant company buys them out in 2027. Definitely domt want or need the big 3 to get crappy ass JB.
My main concern: If Allegiant pulls out of MSP, it’s not their loss, so much as it is Delta’s gain, as Delta would then have even less competition there, a true fortress hub, so fares for locals would skyrocket. Yeah, that’s not ideal.
I know Allegiant has better brand recognition, but I would think that the name "Sun Country" would match Allegiant's business model more - moving people from primarily northern climates to sunny destinations. The Allegiant name feels like it was the brain child of a cheap brand consulting firm. Allegiant even had a resort called Sunseekers for awhile.
Allegiant's logo and branding with Sun Country's name would be a better way to help build on their brand as a travel company and not an airline.
What I find very satisfying is that, unlike, Spirit (well formerly), Frontier, RyanAir and some other low cost (low self esteem?) airlines, one rarely hears about nasty employees, nasty flight attendants and nasty passengers from Allegiant nor Sun Country. This might be a very nice merger!
I have fond memories of flying Sun Country as a kid growing up in the Twin Cities. Back then, it seemed like they just flew whatever planes they could buy off of Northwest at a good price. I had one memorable Sun Country trip from Minneapolis to Tampa where I was able to claim a whole row in the back of a DC-10.
I had a day trip to Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago and saw six Sun Country 737 lined up at MSP; Sun Country is an airline I haven’t paid much attention to until I saw those planes at the airport and realized that they were headquartered there. Nice looking planes.