{"id":216091,"date":"2026-01-11T22:26:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T22:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/11\/allegiant-to-acquire-sun-country-in-budget-airline-merger-the-points-guy\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T22:26:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T22:26:39","slug":"allegiant-to-acquire-sun-country-in-budget-airline-merger-the-points-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/11\/allegiant-to-acquire-sun-country-in-budget-airline-merger-the-points-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegiant to acquire Sun Country in budget airline merger – The Points Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Two of America\u2019s budget airlines are planning to join forces.<\/p>\n

Allegiant Air announced plans to acquire rival Sun Country Airlines on Sunday, in a deal valued at roughly $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n

The merger would bring together two leisure travel-focused ultra-low-cost carriers: Allegiant, known for ferrying passengers from underserved cities to vacation spots, with Sun Country, which does the same \u2014 primarily out of its Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) home base.<\/p>\n

The deal would be subject to regulatory approval by the Trump administration, so travelers with flights booked in the coming weeks (and months) shouldn\u2019t see any immediate changes.<\/p>\n

Allegiant expected the deal to close in the second half of this year.<\/p>\n

Bookings and operations with both airlines will continue, separately, in the meantime.<\/p>\n

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ZACH GRIFF\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What the Allegiant-Sun Country merger means for travelers<\/h2>\n

The merger is expected to link Sun Country’s MSP base to many of Allegiant’s mid-size markets, the companies said. It would also give Allegiant access to the international destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean that it’s long coveted.<\/p>\n

Once complete, the combined airline will operate under the Allegiant name and retain its Las Vegas headquarters.<\/p>\n

That will mean the end of Sun Country as a standalone airline brand \u2014 one that has been around for 43 years.<\/p>\n

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In a statement announcing the news Sunday, Allegiant said the tie-up would create a \u201cleading, more competitive leisure-focused U.S. airline.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Together, our complementary networks will expand our reach to more vacation destinations, including international locations,” Allegiant CEO Greg Anderson said.<\/p>\n

“We are two customer-centric organizations, deeply committed to delivering affordable travel experiences without compromising on quality,” Sun Country President and CEO Jude Bricker added.<\/p>\n

Airline consolidation picks up<\/h2>\n

This would be the second merger involving two U.S. carriers this decade \u2014 with Sunday\u2019s announcement coming roughly 16 months after Alaska Airlines closed on its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, budget competitors Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines have reportedly reignited merger talks,<\/a> in recent months, amid Spirit\u2019s financial woes \u2014 but no deal has been announced.<\/p>\n

This latest wave of airline mergers (or apparent merger talk) follows a stretch that saw the Biden administration successfully block JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance with American Airlines in 2023, and its planned acquisition of Spirit<\/a> in early 2024.<\/p>\n

Bottom line<\/h2>\n

For Allegiant, this acquisition of Sun Country would represent a significant doubling down on its airline operation, after the company in 2025 offloaded its Florida Sunseeker resor<\/a>t and pledged to refocus on its core business.<\/p>\n

In recent months, the carrier has also announced a slew of new routes and pledged to overhaul its loyalty program.<\/a><\/p>\n

The companies planned to discuss the deal in a call with investors on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Related reading:<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Two of America\u2019s budget airlines are planning to join forces. Allegiant Air announced plans to acquire rival Sun Country Airlines on Sunday, in a deal valued at roughly $1.5 billion. The merger would bring together two leisure travel-focused ultra-low-cost carriers: Allegiant, known for ferrying passengers from underserved cities to vacation spots, with Sun Country, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}