As the 2008 presidential election kicks into high gear, a Minnesota airline is playing a high-profile role in one of the campaigns.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, is flying on a Sun Country Boeing 737 for all his campaigning. The Mendota Heights-based carrier was the lowest of three bids for the service, said a spokesman for the Barack Obama-Biden ticket. Biden will be using the plane through Election Day, with Sun Country pilots at the controls and the airline's flight attendants providing cabin service.

Sun Country is keeping relatively quiet about the use of its Boeing 737. But it's a bit of a coup for the small airline, which currently operates nine planes and is struggling along with other carriers to turn a profit with fuel prices still higher than budgeted. Charter contracts allow Sun Country to charge enough to cover the full cost of fuel, an airline spokeswoman said. And the blue plane with the orange tail is likely to be visible in the background whenever Biden is on the tarmac at his latest campaign stop.

On Tuesday Biden was in Columbia, Mo., and St. Louis. Today he'll be in Nashua, N.H.

-- John Welbes