Amazon Air will work with an Apollo-backed airline during peak shipping times

Sun Country Airlines is steaming up with Amazon.com to boost its package-delivery business. The low-cost airline – based in Minneapolis – will fly 10 Boeing 737s during the second quarter of 2020. The news is part of a deal to expand Amazon Air, according to company reports.

Private equity giant Apollo Global Management owns Sun Country Airlines. The institutional investor purchased the company in 2018. Prior to the deal, Sun Country was the largest privately held U.S. airline.

“We are particularly pleased to sell Sun Country to Apollo because it has a proven track record for successfully helping companies gown and generate long-term value,” said Sun Country Chairman Marty Davis after the deal. 

Sun Country and Amazon Partnership

The deal is a sign that Apollo has helped the company think outside the box when it comes to revenue generation.

The leisure airline will use business shipping as a way to level out the seasonality of airline travel. It will start shipping for Amazon in Q2 2020, a little after the busy season of travelers heading south concludes.

The deal is also part of Amazon’s ongoing commitment to air freight. The firm currently works with Atlas Air and ATSG to move its packages.

CEO Jude Bricker said that the company hadn’t planned to get into cargo shipping. It had initially made contact with Amazon about selling a used jet. However, when that deal didn’t pan out, Amazon later approached them about the cargo agreement.

A report says that Sun Country plans to add more than 150 new pilots over the next 18 months. That growth in pilot numbers will fluctuate based on Amazon’s shipping requirements.

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