The blending of Allegiant Air and Sun Country Airlines sailed through the merger process because the two air carriers are so similar and because there was almost no overlap between the companies’ routes, a top Allegiant executive said Thursday.
Allegiant President and Chief Financial Officer Robert “BJ” Neal said there’s still plenty of work ahead to integrate the two airlines that on Wednesday officially merged and will be headquartered in Las Vegas.
“We’re trying to balance between celebrating, because it is quite a big feat, but also keeping in mind we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us as well,” Neal said in an exclusive interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The $1.5 billion merger between Allegiant and Minneapolis-based Sun Country was first announced Jan. 11, making the time between announcement and closing the deal just over four months, practically unheard of in the airline industry. Neal said he read in analysts reports that such a merger and acquisition hasn’t been done this quickly in 20 years.
Neal said blending the technological systems of the two airlines would likely be the most challenging aspect of combining the carriers and he expects that full integration under one operating certificate may take until early 2028.
In the meantime, Allegiant and Sun Country are operating separately and customers can continue to book travel through existing channels, with no changes to current reservations, flight schedules or travel plans.
Allegiant and Sun Country operate similarly with most of their flights out and back to and from existing hubs for each flight crew.
‘More alike than different’
“We’re more alike than we are different,” Neal said. “There’s a lot of similarities between these two cultures. During the deal, we would say we were cut from the same cloth, so we’re pretty good about it.”
Neal said he thinks the most exciting thing for consumers is that Allegiant will be adding dozens of new city destinations for leisure travelers.
“It’s just expanded access to leisure markets,” he said. “You’ll now have more leisure markets across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and international beach destinations.”
Among the key Sun Country destinations: in Mexico, Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Cozumel; in Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Punta Gorda, Tampa, St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Jacksonville and Destin-Fort Walton Beach; in the Caribbean, Aruba, St. Maartan, Jamaica, St. Thomas, San Juan, Turks and Caicos and Grand Cayman. Sun Country also goes as far north as Anchorage, Alaska.
“There’s nearly 650 routes, and we had only one overlapping route, so it’s the network expansion first,” Neal said. “I think over time, you get a more scaled loyalty program with more opportunity to both earn and redeem points for leisure travel. That’s probably the way that I would think about the benefits to customers.”
The single common route between the two carriers is between Appleton, Wisconsin, and Fort Myers, Florida.
Neal said he doesn’t expect the differing fleet types will be problematic because Sun Country crews will continue to fly their Boeing 737 twin-engine jets out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Allegiant will continue to run its blend of 737 and Airbus A319 and A320 jets from Las Vegas, Phoenix and three Florida airports.
Charter and cargo
Like Allegiant, Sun Country offers charter flights for sports teams, but unlike Allegiant, Sun Country has a robust cargo operation.
“They operate about 70 airplanes,” Neal said. “Approximately 50 of those are passenger airplanes in a configuration that’s actually quite similar to Allegiant. And then the other 20 are cargo aircraft, and they’re all (Boeing) 737NGs. The 20 cargo aircraft are operated for one large customer, which is Amazon Prime.”
Neal explained that moving toward a single brand with one passenger service system and website would likely take until mid- to late 2027 with the Federal Aviation Administration’s single operating certificate following.
“We have had the FAA and regulatory agencies involved from the very beginning,” Neal said. “They’ve been very supportive and constructive in the process.”
Wall Street reacted enthusiastically Thursday with Allegiant shares, traded on Nasdaq, closing up $5.17, 6.9 percent, to $80.38 a share in volume nearly twice the daily average. Analysts reacted positively to the merger announcement and doubled down on the swift close.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
