Creditors try to close airline

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Three creditors of Sun Country Airlines filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition Tuesday seeking to liquidate the struggling carrier, which serves Nevada gambling cities with charter flights.

The Chapter 7 petition filed with the federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del., claims Sun Country owes the trio a total of $3.1 million related to leases on Boeing 727s. The creditors are Pegasus Aviation Inc. and Pegasus Aviation Lease Asset Securitization in San Francisco, and Riverhorse Aviation Group Inc. in Santa Monica, Calif.

Tammy Lee, a spokeswoman for Mendota Heights, Minn.-based Sun Country, said the airline would seek to move the case to federal court in Minnesota and have it converted into a voluntary Chapter 11 proceeding.

Lee said Sun Country had been planning a Chapter 11 filing, but had not done so yet.

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