Sun Country Airlines sold to private Minn. company

Sun Country Airlines has been sold, once again, to Minnesota investors. The company says there are no plans to change the Mendota Heights-based airline's operations, management team or frequent flyer program.

The Davis family, owners of Cambria Holdings, is acquiring the airline, which has been through bankruptcy twice since 2001.

The family's porftolio includes Cambria, a maker of quartz countertops, and Davisco Foods International, which produces more than 300 million pounds of cheese every year. The company's website says the Davis family hails from St. Peter, Minn.

This is the latest ownership change in a turbulent decade for Sun Country. In October, 2008, the company rushed into bankruptcy as the legal troubles of then-owner Tom Petters mounted. Petters was eventually convicted of perpetrating a $3.5 billion fraud on investors.

The bankruptcy filing allowed Sun Country to keep operating and protect itself from liquidation as part of the effort to raise money to compensate Petters' creditors and victims.

A decade ago, in the wake of 9/11, the company declared bankruptcy, stopped all but charter flying and laid off nearly its entire staff of 900 workers. By the following February the company had resumed flying a scaled-back schedule, and was eventually sold to a Minnesota-based investor group. Petters bought the airline in 2006.

Sun Country now has more than 800 employees and flies to 38 destinations in the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Sun Country emerged from bankruptcy last February, not coincidently with the carrier's sale, as the original version implied.