Sun Country Airlines is an American airline headquartered in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul suburb of Eagan, Minnesota and based at nearby Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. The airline's main focus is flying Minnesotans to warmer destinations during the winter months, such as Florida and Mexico. In the summer months, the airline flies passengers between Minneapolis and the east and west coast in the U.S. It operates scheduled and charter flights to destinations in the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean (including Cuba from 2015 and Costa Rica) as well as ad-hoc charters.

Sun Country began flight operations in January 1983 with a single Boeing 727-200 jetliner. The airline's original staff consisted of sixteen pilots, sixteen flight attendants, three mechanics and one office person. A number of the original employees had previously worked for Braniff International Airways which had ceased all operations during the early 1980s. The company's founder and first President/CEO was Captain Jim Olsen, who also acted as Chief Pilot. His wife, Joan Smith-Olsen, acted as Chief Flight Attendant and Head of Inflight Operations. Jim Olsen retired from Sun Country in 2007.

Slow and deliberate expansion through the 1980s created steady profits for the company. In 1986 the company placed into service its first wide-body aircraft, a 380-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 leased from future competitor Northwest Airlines. The aircraft's intercontinental range enabled the company to fly international charters and also accommodate high demand on the company's popular Minneapolis to Las Vegas route that the Boeing 727-200 fleet could not handle.

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