Sun Country Airlines is cutting hundreds of jobs as it plans to outsource much of its ground handling operations.
About 350 jobs will go at its Minneapolis base as functions such as plane cleaning, passenger service and baggage handling are farmed out to contractor Global Aviation.
That accounts for about 20% of the workforce and will begin from next month.
It is a first major restructuring since the airline was sold to Apollo Global Management, a New York-based investment group, although Sun Country has already began transitioning to a low cost carrier business model.
"These decisions are always difficult to make," said CEO Jude Bricker, insisting the move is necessary to make it more efficient.
Workers will be laid off and potentially rehired by Global Aviation with ‘preferable access’ to their existing positions, albeit at likely significantly reduced pay and work benefits
"We want to concentrate on flying airplanes and selling tickets. That doesn’t mean we change our view on customer service. It doesn’t. It just means that we want to bring in a company that specializes specifically on ground operations to run our Minneapolis ground operations," Bricket told the Star Tribune.
"The more efficient we can get with our operations, the more we can justify investment in growth, offering new markets and new travel destinations."
