jwelbes@pioneerpress.com

Mendota Heights-based Sun Country Airlines, which is losing money, is looking for some financial help.

CEO Stan Gadek met today with several Minnesota state senators, spelling out the airline's current challenges with high fuel prices and laying out a case for a state aid package. Over the next two years, the airline needs "upwards of $50 million" to maintain its current business model, Gadek said.

"In the next 24 months there will be a lot of changes in the industry," Gadek said in an interview. The pending merger of Eagan-based Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines will create opportunities for Sun Country, he said. As a combined Delta-Northwest trims flights, Sun Country can fill some of those

Help for Sun Country?
Should the state step in and help Sun Country weather high fuel costs?
 Yes: It's in everyone's interest to maintain what little competition there is here.
 No: Let the market decide whether the business survives.
slots. He also hopes fuel prices will stabilize or drop in that timeframe.

The aid from the state could come in the form of fee abatements from the Metropolitan Airports Commission or loans. Legislators were receptive to the case he laid out, Gadek said, and he hopes to meet with the airports commission in the next month.

Sun Country serves a number of Sun Belt destinations from the Twin Cities and ramps up its flying in the winter months. Revenue has been growing but profits have remained elusive. Its struggles showed in a $43 million net loss in the four quarters ended in March 2008. In the first quarter of this year, the airline lost $8.3 million.

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