Petters Aviation Buys Out Partner in Sun Country Airlines
MINNETONKA, Minn., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ — Petters Aviation, a division of Petters Group Worldwide, has purchased 100% of Whitebox Advisors, LLC interest in Sun Country Airlines. This gives them over 80% ownership in the airline. Petters Aviation and Whitebox originally purchased Sun Country on October 30, 2006 with each entity owning a 50% stake.
“We completed this transaction so we can continue to integrate the airline with other strategic opportunities that will continue the growth of Sun Country Airlines,” said Tom Petters, CEO and Chairman of Petters Group Worldwide. “Whitebox has been a great partner and the timing of this move makes sense for both organizations,” he continued. Petters has been instrumental in supporting key improvements at Sun Country by adding more aircraft, starting an unprecedented no black-out date frequent flyer program (Ufly), adding routes to popular destinations, launching a significant advertising campaign and continuing to improve the quality service for which Sun Country is famous. “This is just another step in expanding our aviation business that ultimately will be a great benefit for both business and leisure travelers,” Petters said.
Petters Aviation has also recently opened a new sales and service center at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport where it is working with key aviation partners with focus on large and medium size private and corporate jets.
About Petters Aviation
Petters Aviation, a division of Petters Group Worldwide, provides value- added services to the corporate aviation market by leveraging operations at multiple facilities. They created of a service and sales center at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport in 2007. They also have a relationship with Airbus, as the North American sales center, and a controlling interest in Sun Country Airlines. For more information on Petters Aviation visit http://www.pettersgroup.com/.
About Sun Country Airlines
Sun Country Airlines, privately held by Petters Group Worldwide, is based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sun Country, which has earned a reputation for offering world class service at an affordable price, recently was named to the top 10 lists of domestic airlines in both Travel+Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler. The airline plans to continue its growth by adding frequency to its popular destinations including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco. They offer scheduled service to more than 30 cities. Sun Country offers a Ufly rewards program which does the unthinkable. It rewards. For a complete list of destinations and more information, please visit http://www.suncountry.com/.
About Whitebox Advisors
Whitebox Advisors is a Minneapolis-based family of hedge funds with approximately $1.8 billion under management. The firm was founded in 1999 by CEO Andrew Redleaf, a Twin Cities native and a graduate of St. Paul Academy and Yale University. Though each Whitebox fund pursues a unique strategy, all Whitebox funds invest primarily in publicly traded securities and blend quantitative and qualitative disciplines seeking to identify unusually strong opportunities with favorable risk/reward parameters. Our goal is to be unambiguously better than the crowd and focus on absolute returns for investors.
Petters Aviation
CONTACT: Andrea Miller, Director Corporate Communications of PettersGroup Worldwide, +1-952-975-4825, andrea.miller@pettersgroup.com
Web site: http://www.pettersgroup.com/http://www.suncountry.com/