Sun Country is the newest public U.S. airline.
Shares of the Minneapolis-based carrier began selling on the Nasdaq exchange Wednesday under the symbol SNCY and as of 1 p.m. Eastern time were trading at close to $35 per share, up 45% from their opening price of $24.
Sun Country expected to raise $218.2 million from the IPO of 9.09 million shares. The funds, the carrier said, will be used to pay back federal Cares Act loans and for general corporate purposes.
Sun Country's IPO price of $24 Wednesday morning was more than the $21 to $23 the company had projected.
Stocks across the airline sector have risen sharply of late on expectations of a jump in travel due to Covid-19 vaccine rollouts. Shares of the U.S. Global JETS Exchange Traded Fund are up approximately 30% year-to-date.
In the February regulatory filing in which Sun Country announced plans for the IPO, the carrier touted its low-cost, leisure travel-focused business model as well as its contracted work as a cargo carrier for Amazon, for which it flies 12 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Cargo service and leisure flying have fared far better during the pandemic than business travel and long-haul, international service. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Nomura underwrote the Sun Country IPO.
Frontier is now the lone airline among the 11 mainline U.S. carriers that is privately owned -- but likely not for long. The carrier filed its intent to go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 8. An IPO date has not been set.