APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — For the second time in as many months, Wings Financial Federal Credit Union has added another airline to its field of membership.
This time, the $1.8 billion credit union announced on July 30 it has partnered with St. Paul, Minn.-based Sun Country Airlines to serve the carrier's more than 1,000 employees. The partnership comes nearly two months after Wings Financial partnered with New York-based JetBlue Airways to serve the airline's more than 11,000 employees.
As part of the latest agreement, Wings Financial said it will begin promoting its products and services to Sun Country employees immediately. Wings Financial said it will also offer Sun Country employees a customized line of checks featuring Sun Country aircraft images.
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"This is a great partnership between two Minnesota-based companies that serve customers both here and in places far from home," said Paul Parish, Wings Financial president/CEO in a statement. "Sun Country is one of the industry's top-ranked airlines and we are proud that we have the opportunity to serve its employees wherever their travels take them."
John Fredericksen, Sun Country vice president administration, said the alliance was a "logical choice" for the carrier.
"They share our commitment to customer service and their culture of friendly excellence matches ours," Fredericksen said. "And, because their roots are deep in our industry, they understand the busy lifestyle of airline employees."
With the recent airline alliances, Wings Financial is moving forward with its trade, industry and profession charter granted in 2003, among the first in the industry to receive the expanded charter for the entire airline industry. In 2004, the credit union linked up with Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran Airways to serve the carrier's more than 5,800 employees.
The credit union, which was founded in 1938 to serve Northwest Airlines, now serves more than 30 airlines, according to Wings Financial's Web site. Northwest Airlines' employees are still the largest group served by the credit union, according to John Wagner, vice president of marketing at Wings Financial, adding the carrier will "remain an important part of our membership."
"Our work in this area will absolutely continue," said Wagner, on partnering with more airlines. "Our field of membership is the airline industry and the people who support it so partnering with airlines has been and will continue to be an important part of our future. We've been fortunate to partner with some great airlines and to serve thousands of their employees."
When asked how many AirTran employees have joined Wings Financial since 2004, Wagner did not provide any figures, but did say they "are in line with our expectations."
"Without providing any proprietary information, I think it's important to note that since entering our partnership with AirTran we opened a full service branch in Atlanta last November to serve the AirTran employee group," Wagner said. "We've been very pleased and flattered by the support we've received from the AirTran employees and our membership from their ranks is in line with our expectations."
In other news, the credit union has entered the MySpace realm. Apparently launched by a "68-year old female" based in Apple Valley, the space indicates that Wings Financial has 26 "friends" including major carriers such as Continental Airlines, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Sky West,
Sun Country and Frontier Airlines. Two friends list Wings Financial as their employer. Both "Tiffany" and "Ashley" list "product marketing coordinator/designer" under "companies" in their profiles. The MySpace site can be found at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=163613181.
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