Passengers were lined up at the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport security checkpoint waiting to leave the first snowfall of the season for a few days in 80-degree weather in Nevada.
And they took a direct flight there.
Their Sun Country flight was the first to arrive in Brainerd in years. If organizers determine this flight to Laughlin, Nev., is successful, others are planned.
Howard and Elenore Johnson left their Pine River home to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary a little early when the opportunity came up for them to visit Laughlin again. It had been awhile since they'd been there.
"Oh, heavens, that was when the roads were still gravel," Elenore Johnson said and laughed. Laughlin is on the Colorado River about 90 minutes south of Las Vegas.
The Johnsons' wedding anniversary is in March, but when they read about a direct flight leaving Thursday from Brainerd and returning this afternoon, they could not pass up the opportunity so close to home.
"That was one of the things that attracted us most -- leaving from Brainerd," Elenore said.
Those sentiments were echoed by fellow travelers from Pine River, Shirley and Bob Vaughn.
"We would never have gone if it meant flying from Minneapolis," Shirley Vaughn said as she waited in line for the security check.
By 8 a.m. the Johnsons and Vaughns were loaded on the Sun Country 727 along with about 100 other passengers for the direct flight. And shortly thereafter they were taxiing away from the terminal on a hazy, gray morning.
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Mesaba Airlines employee Arlene Lazorik (right) checked carry-on luggage as Elenore Johnson, Pine River, went through Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport security before boarding her flight to Nevada. Those on the trip return on a direct flight today.
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The relative ease of shorter lines and a smaller airport setting have been attractive to travelers in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001. The selling point of the lakes area airport's convenience and parking attracted passengers. Trip organizer Sid Walker, Walker Travel Inc. of Pequot Lakes, hopes word of mouth from this first trip will build.
Walker said response for this trip was not as good as he hoped, but it was good enough to be profitable. And Walker hopes to have more trips in late April or early May and again in the fall. Destinations could be expanded, including a flight to Mexico. Walker said a flight to Mexico would be ideal, but he was not sure it would happen.
Walker started talking with Sun Country about the Laughlin flight in May and set it up in early August. Walker said Sun Country moves a lot of aircraft into Laughlin.
"It has everything Las Vegas has, just on a smaller scale," Walker said. All of the guests went to Riverside Resort, a 1,400-room hotel. The cost of the trip, including the three-hour flight, three nights at the hotel and transportation to and from the Laughlin airport, was $319 per person.
Walker was one of the original owners of Sun Country when the charter carrier started in 1982 with flights commencing a year later. Walker was with MLT Vacations when 18 people there and 17 pilots and flight attendants from Braniff Airlines got together to form Sun Country. He left as a Sun Country owner about 1987.
In June 1992, he started Walker Travel Inc. Walker has been in the travel industry for 45 years. He vacationed in the lakes area and decided to make a home here. His wife is a flight attendant with Sun Country.
Even with his extensive history, Walker said many people have never heard of him. He hopes the people who take this first trip have a good time and will be back again, as well as bring along those who may have been skeptical this time.
Sun Country switched to scheduled service in June 1999 and grew to serve more than 30 cities from the Twin Cities before its recent collapse.
An investor group MN Airlines, led by its chairman -- retired Burnsville attorney Robert Daly -- purchased key Sun Country assets for $3.1 million in mid-April when the company was in bankruptcy court.
In August, Daly reported Sun Country Airlines expected to be profitable during the first quarter of 2003. Sun Country lost money during the first four months of operations under new ownership, but Chief Executive Officer Jay Salmen said it now has costs in line, the Associated Press reported in August.
