Sun Country Airlines

Is Sun Country Airlines safe?

Yes. Sun Country has flown from Minneapolis-St Paul for more than 40 years without a fatal accident or a written-off aircraft, and it holds an IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary through its IATA membership. We score it 83, between Allegiant (81), which now owns it, and Frontier (87). The weak spot is age. Sun Country buys only second-hand Boeing 737s, and its passenger jets averaged about 17 years at the end of 2025.

What is Sun Country's accident record?

The Aviation Safety Network database lists three Sun Country accidents, all on the ground and all more than 25 years ago. In December 1996 a ramp agent in Las Vegas had his foot run over by the nose wheel of a DC-10 during pushback. In May 1999 a Boeing 727 being pushed back at Washington Dulles swung its left wing into a catering truck; the NTSB faulted the tug driver's lookout and the airline's procedures, which used no wing walkers. In September 2000 a wheel on another 727 broke apart from fatigue while taxiing at Minneapolis, damaging the airframe; the cause was a manufacturing defect in the wheel.

Since then the only event the FAA classed as an accident was in December 2017, when a flight attendant broke an arm on a 737-700 flying from Denver to Minneapolis. The DC-10s and 727s are long gone.

The 2022 Las Vegas gear collapse

The most serious recent event happened on 4 February 2022. Flight 110, a 737-800 leaving Las Vegas for Minneapolis with 50 passengers and six crew, got a red warning light for its right main landing gear after take-off. The crew heard a loud bang, declared an emergency and came back. About three seconds after touchdown the right main gear collapsed, the aircraft rolled right and the right engine hit the runway. It stopped on the runway and everyone left by stairs.

The NTSB found that the gear's outer cylinder had cracked through a tooling hole. Arc burns made during cadmium plating at an overhaul about 10 years earlier had let the metal weaken and then crack from fatigue. It was a maintenance quality failure from long before the flight, and a reminder of what a used fleet brings with it: parts with long histories that the airline has to trust and check.

Engine problems and other incidents

Sun Country flies the CFM56-powered 737 NG, one of the most widely flown jets in the world. Its recent incidents look like those of other airlines flying older 737s. The FAA and news reports record several engine-related returns:

• Spokane, June 2024. Flight 286 from Seattle shut down its left engine at 37,000 feet and diverted with 176 people on board.
• Phoenix, November 2024. Flight 606 turned back after an "engine event"; passengers reported a bang and a flash. The NTSB did not investigate.
• Los Angeles, July 2025. The right engine of flight 430 to Minneapolis threw sparks and flames in the climb, and the crew returned.

There were also a return to Boston after a pressurisation problem in June 2025, and a tail strikeTail strikeWhen the tail of an aircraft touches the runway during take-off or landing, usually because the nose was raised too far or too early.More in the glossary on take-off from Milwaukee in gusty, snowy weather on 29 December 2025 that damaged the tail skid. All ended in a safe landing and none hurt anyone. We found no Sun Country event in the FAA's 2026 incident statements up to 22 October.

The one enforcement case we found is old. In 2015 the FAA proposed a $114,975 penalty after finding that Sun Country had put a mechanic and three flight attendants to work before their drug test results came back, and had left a pilot out of the random testing pool for seven months.

How old is the Sun Country fleet?

At the end of 2025 Sun Country had 70 Boeing 737 NGs: 65 737-800s and five 737-900ERs. Forty-seven carried passengers, 20 flew cargo for Amazon and three were leased to other airlines. The passenger jets averaged about 17 years, and the Amazon freighters, which Amazon supplies, averaged 23. Sun Country has no order book: it buys mid-life aircraft when prices suit it.

A single type keeps training and spare parts simple, and pilots move between passenger and cargo flying. But the 737 NG is now the previous generation, without fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary controls, and every aircraft has years of maintenance by earlier owners behind it. That is why the fleet scores 62, lower than Allegiant's mix of old Airbuses and new 737 MAXs.

Sun Country and Allegiant

Allegiant agreed to buy Sun Country on 11 January 2026 and closed the deal on 13 May 2026. Until the FAA approves a single operating certificate, the two run as separate airlines, so a Sun Country flight still carries Sun Country's crews, procedures and record. In July 2026 an Allegiant executive said the merger of certificates could take 18 to 24 months and that the Sun Country brand will be gone by early 2028. Certificate mergers are the period when manuals, training and maintenance programmes are rewritten, and we will re-check this page as that happens.

How to fly Sun Country safely

Sun Country's winter schedule is heavy on Minneapolis departures in snow and ice. If your flight is held for de-icing, that is the system working; ask for a later connection rather than pushing for an early push-back. Many of its leisure routes are seasonal and thin, so a technical problem away from Minneapolis can mean a long wait for a spare aircraft. Do not board a quick fix you are uneasy about, and leave a day of slack before a cruise or event.

How we scored it

No fatal accident and no hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary in over 40 years give a strong accident record (91), and FAA oversight with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary scores 88. The fleet (62) is the weakest factor: all second-hand 737 NGs averaging about 17 years. Serious incidents (76) carry the 2022 gear collapse and several engine shutdowns. Environment scores 82. Overall 83.