Allegiant Travel Co. is preparing to buy Minnesota’s Sun Country Airlines, with shareholders set to vote next week on the $1.5 billion arrangement and executives saying the deal could close as soon as May 13. In a companywide email sent April 24, Allegiant chief executive Greg Anderson told Sun Country’s nearly 3,300 employees there would be “limited immediate changes for most team members” right after the transaction closes.
The message was meant to calm nerves across the carrier’s workforce, especially among pilots, flight attendants, aircraft mechanics and baggage handlers, who were told they should expect little or no disruption at first. But for the roughly 33% of Sun Country employees in white-collar roles outside direct aircraft operations, the outlook is far different: those jobs are set to move to Las Vegas over the next year, and headquarters staff who do not touch airplanes must either accept a job offer in Nevada or take severance pay.
Anderson said corporate employees who are offered jobs with Allegiant will get a 12-month window to relocate, with affected department directors to be informed 30 days after the deal closes and everyone else within 60 days. He said corporate roles would “primarily, if not all, be based in Las Vegas,” and company executives expect to extend offers to a majority of the Minnesota workers affected. The move follows the airlines’ clearing of a final federal regulatory hurdle earlier this month, leaving shareholder approval as the last major step before the acquisition can close.
The plan matters because it starts to show how Allegiant intends to absorb Sun Country: keep aircraft operations largely intact in the short term while shifting back-office work west. That split reflects the reality that Sun Country’s operations workforce is represented by five different labor unions, while the company’s nearly 700 pilots have been told their roles should stay the same for the year after closing as the two airlines temporarily fly under separate banners.
Even so, some of the hardest questions are still unresolved. Executives have committed to keeping MSP a major base and say workers in aircraft operations will be needed locally to help expand the Minnesota market, but one major issue remains where flight crews will land on the seniority list. For now, Allegiant’s pitch is stability first, change later — and for many Sun Country workers, the next year will decide whether they are headed to Las Vegas or out the door.