After Years Without, Major Minnesota-Based Airline Announces Plans To Launch Mobile App

Just a few weeks ago, I was musing how bizarre it is that in 2024 that a major American airline doesn't have a mobile app.

If you've flown Minnesota-based Sun Country Airlines in the last several years, you've undoubtedly thought "Hey, I should download their mobile app" before your flight. Nearly every airline in the country has one. Sun Country is the exception to that rule.

Airline apps are a handy way to get updates on your flight's status, have easy digital access to your ticket, make changes, and a bunch of other odds and ends related to your flight. It is sort of an expectation for travelers to be able to get this type of information in app form in this modern era.

Getting push notifications about important information and various functionality beyond what you can get from just a website are pretty handy things that passengers aboard Sun Country flights have been missing out on, however, since 2017.

As I explained in my early story about how weird it was that they didn't have an app, the airline made the decision to get rid of the app 7 years ago, leaning on their website to fill the void.

Now, I want to be clear - I haven't had any awful experience with the airline. I have flown Sun Country several times in recent years, and the experience aboard the flight and with their website was quite pleasant.

READ MORE: Former Minnesota college student invented this handy app flight passengers should check out

That said, having the extra functionality of an app would have made that experience even better, filling in the remaining gaps that are just among expectations from flying in this modern era. Especially considering I didn't have any delays on any of these flights, which is when mobile apps can really shine for an airline.

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It sounds like Sun Country is getting close to finally bringing back a mobile app and joining the rest of the major airlines in the country. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the company shared in 2023 that they planned to launch a new app "either later in 2023 or early 2024".

While that "later 2023" deadline passed and we're getting more into the realm of "middle of 2024", Bring Me The News is reporting Sun Country will be launching a new mobile app. The Thrifty Traveler shares that company officials have the app on their phones as they test it and work out the final bugs before release.

While it sounds like a release is coming soon, neither of the two outlets reporting on this news were able to get a timeline from Sun Country about the app's release. Based on this information, unless something catastrophic happens with the bug squashing, we should see an app sometime soon.