Sun Country Airlines Debuts First Ever Custom Aircraft Livery Celebrating Minnesota Golden Gopher Athletics

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sun Country Airlines () debuted its first custom-designed aircraft livery in celebration of Minnesota Golden Gopher Athletics. Sun Country was named the Official Airline of Gopher Athletics in 2023. In addition, Sun Country has provided charter service for the university’s sports teams since 2012 and has flown nearly 500 charters during the past 12 years.

"Sun Country is proud to debut this aircraft design that illustrates our hometown pride and longstanding partnership between two iconic Minnesota organizations,” said Grant Whitney, Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer. "We look forward to continuing our multi-year partnership with Gopher Athletics and will root for them for years to come."

“This is a tremendous extension between two proud Minnesota brands,” said Minnesota Senior Associate Athletic Director Mike Wierzbicki. “We take great pride in our relationship with Sun Country. They have been a tremendous partner, and we are excited for Minnesota fans and college sports fans to see the Minnesota Block M and Maroon and Gold flying all over the country.”

This livery is the first custom aircraft design in Sun Country’s fleet of 43 passenger planes. Among one of the first flights with the Maroon and Gold paint, the aircraft is scheduled to take the Gopher football team to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, December 30.

“Customers and Gopher fans will see this aircraft, which is tail number 809, on many routes throughout our network,” Whitney added. “Our history with Gopher Athletics presented a great opportunity for us to finally create a custom livery that our hometown will be excited about.”

Gopher Sports Properties, the locally based team of Learfield – the media and technology company powering college athletics – is the exclusive multimedia rights holder for Gopher Athletics and oversees all sponsorship agreements on behalf of the athletic department.

Read more about our partnership with Minnesota Gopher Athletics .

About Sun Country 

Sun Country Airlines is a new breed of hybrid low-cost air carrier, whose mission is to connect guests to their favorite people and places, to create lifelong memories and transformative experiences. Sun Country dynamically deploys shared resources across our synergistic scheduled service, charter, and cargo businesses. Based in Minnesota, we focus on serving leisure and visiting friends and relatives (“VFR”) passengers and charter customers and providing cargo service to Amazon, with flights throughout the United States and to destinations in Mexico, Central America, Canada, and the Caribbean.

For photos, b-roll and additional company information, visit

About Gopher Athletics  

The University of Minnesota sponsors 22 varsity intercollegiate athletic teams and is represented by more than 625 student-athletes who compete in the Big Ten and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Minnesota has claimed 29 national championships in eight different sports and has won 216 regular-season conference titles and 42 conference tournament championships. Minnesota has also produced 213 Academic All-Americans, which ranks as the tenth most all-time among college and universities.

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