Low-Cost Hybrid Airline Sun Country To Go Public

Investors may be surprised to learn that an airline stock is going public during the COVID-19 pandemic. One filed on Tuesday to do just that with a unique business model that has fared better than competitors during the crisis.

What Happened: Low-cost air carrier Sun Country Airlines Holdings Inc filed an initial public offering on Tuesday. Shares will trade as "SNCY" on the Nasdaq. The company is owned by Apollo Global Management APO.

The company is a hybrid carrier that ‘deploys shared resources across synergistic scheduled services” that include passenger, charter and cargo.

Sun Country serves leisure customers and charter customers as its main sources of revenue.

Flights from Sun Country go across the United States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The company has 31 planes that fly 800 flights per week during non-pandemic times.

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Why it’s Important: Sun Country Airlines has a deal in place with Amazon.com AMZN signed in December 2019, according to Skift. The deal covers 10 dedicated cargo aircraft owned by and dedicated to Amazon with Sun Country pilots.

The cargo deals have helped Sun Country Airlines survive the pandemic better than others. Utilizing the space and flights across passenger, leisure and cargo could help provide investors a new opportunity to invest in a different model airline company.

Sun Country said its impact from the pandemic will be less than others due to its “diversified and flexible business model,” Marketwatch reports.

Sun Country Airlines had revenue of $293.7 million in the first nine months of 2020, compared to $537.5 million in the prior-year period.