Plot

Matt, a number-crunching CEO, purchases Jenny's family-owned, regional airline. Matt's cost-cutting initiatives threaten Christmas when he cancels the airline's annual holiday charitable benefit for underserved children.

A holiday battle of wills erupts between pilot Jenny Beckett and Matt Hansen, a number-crunching CEO who purchases her family-owned regional airline. Matt's cost-cutting initiatives threaten Christmas when he cancels the airline's annual holiday charitable benefit for underserved children. Determined to show Matt that the sweetest things in life are worth any price, Jenny rallies the community to help save the event and unexpectedly finds herself falling for the magnate in the process.

Jenny lands a Sundancer Airlines plane in Snowflake, Montana, near the Canadian border. In addition to her job as captain on many of the flights, she is in charge of operations for the airline her grandmother founded. The airline remains headquartered in this small town instead of a larger city, but that may be about to change. Jenny's father Frank is retiring from running the airline, and while she was expecting to take over his job, he has sold the airline to Portland, Oregon-based Conner Airlines.

As she walks into the terminal, Jenny sees a little girl who is scared to fly. Jenny gives the girl a set of wings like the ones she wears as a captain, and tells the girl she is now in charge of making scared passengers realize they don't have to worry.

Megan, one of the airline employees, and girlfriend of Jenny's brother Charlie, sees the handsome Matt Hansen, CEO of Conner Airlines, in a magazine article she shows to Jenny. Jenny believes she will meet with Matt the next day, but that's not where they first encounter each other. On the shuttle taking people from the airport into town, a grumpy man gets on and accidentally falls into Jenny's lap. He is pleasant enough about the encounter, but he clearly does not like Jenny's efforts to be friendly. When he says he flew on a private jet, Jenny tells him that contributes to his carbon footprint and he should really do his part for the environment by flying commercial. The man doesn't seem interested in changing his ways.

At the local hotel, the man must deal with the overly perky Sue, who wants his experience to be the best possible. She puts him in the honeymoon suite. Anything, the grumpy man says, because he just wants to rest.

At home, Jenny must deal with her daughter's lack of direction in life. Will Chloe go to college? The audience later learns Chloe works for the airline part-time but has no desire to go into the family business. Jenny got divorced five years earlier, from a man who couldn't handle her career ambitions. Charlie calls Jenny and admits he and Megan are broken up but keeping up appearances for now. Charlie didn't want to commit, while Megan did.

The next day Matt Hansen meets with company officials for the first time. Jenny is shocked to see who it is. And Matt still has the same attitude. He is there to cut costs and doesn't care what makes the airline special. Santa's Flight is coming up in nearly a week; this is when a group of needy kids is flown to Idaho Falls for a good time. Hearing about an event that is important to the town, one started by Jenny's late mother, Matt says no. That doesn't stop Jenny, who realizes if cost is a problem, the company needs to fund the event entirely from outside donations.

Christine, who runs a tavern and was Jenny's mother's best friend, is a strong supporter when asked to help with Santa's Flight. Charlie's band provides the music, and when Matt comes to the tavern, he is impressed. Charlie works in marketing for Sundancer but is not that good at his job and would rather have a career in music, which is what his college degree is in.

Having seen a map of Sundancer's routes, Matt observes that most of the activity is in Helena, so that's where the headquarters should be. Jenny tries to persuade him to keep the airline where it is, because it means a lot to the town and people would hate to move. Matt cares about the bottom line, not people. Also, Hayley brings her foster son Benjamin to work with her when child care plans fall through. Matt tells Jenny they are not running a day care center.

When Matt goes to Helena to look at operations there, he wants to drive. Jenny insists he fly on her plane, and he won't admit to being scared, but he is. The little girl Jenny helped earlier tells Matt not to be scared, and that helps. Jenny has arranged for Benjamin to travel with her, and on the return trip Benjamin helps Matt get more comfortable with flying. He also tells Matt how much he wants to be a pilot and impresses Matt with his knowledge of planes in general and this plane in particular.

Megan and Charlie want Frank to be happy, and they believe Christine is attracted to him. They start working to put the two together.

Chloe designs a web site for fund-raising for Santa's Flight . She does such a good job Jenny is willing to let her study web design in college.

Matt appears to be changing his ways. He tells Jenny he grew up the only child of an investment banker who sent him to boarding school and didn't have the ideal family life, though he and his father did seem to enjoy Christmas together. However, after he and Jenny spend some time together on what is not really a date, he gets a cell phone call from corporate and indicates he is moving the headquarters. Once again, he turns grumpy.

On another occasion, Jenny shows Matt around the town and helps him understand what makes this town so special. They visit a toy store which has played a major role in Santa's Flight. The couple go for coffee and play with their toys. Matt admits he is also divorced but his wife left him for his best friend. Jenny has admitted she once considered leaving Snowflake for a big airline job. There are hints Matt will keep Jenny in her operations job.

Matt also helps the family with Christmas decorations. He sees a very valuable collection of airline-related items Jenny could sell but they mean too much.

Eventually, someone lets it slip that Santa's Flight is still on. Matt says he said no to that and if Jenny can't be trusted, maybe she won't be his new VP of operations. Still, Santa's Flight is going to happen anyway. It's just having trouble meeting its goal. In a TV interview, Jenny makes it clear that despite problems, the event will happen. Matt has to do damage control because if he shuts it down, his company will look bad. Matt later makes it clear he supports the event.

At a fund-raising event, Frank and Christine shows signs they will become a couple. The money needed is still not there afterward. However, the next day an anonymous donor puts the fund-raising over the top.

But the flight is almost called off. Hayley does an inspection and learns the plane isn't safe. Sundancer doesn't have any extra planes and the plane they were going to use can't be fixed in time. If any of the planes committed for flights were used, that would inconvenience people who were counting on their flight. Can Matt help?

In fact, he can. Matt calls corporate and issues an ultimatum. Either they make Santa's Flight happen, or he quits.

Jenny has to tell all the donors the bad news, but before she can, the plane is ready for Santa's Flight. It is later revealed Matt got a Conner crew to do the necessary repairs during the night. The kids get on the plane and they have a great time. Matt even goes along and learns even more about Benjamin. He tells Benjamin if he does well in school, Conner will pay for his education to become a pilot. Matt announces his company's commitment to keeping Santa's Flight an annual event and to make up the difference if fund-raising isn't enough.

Matt announces Jenny will be his VP of operations but she will have to move to Portland. He also returns a very special set of gold wings that belonged to her grandmother. It turns out Jenny was the anonymous donor and she was able to sell the wings. Matt searched and got them back. Matt also says Snowflake will remain the airline's headquarters. But not all the news is good. Marketing will be in Portland and Charlie will not be staying. That's fine because Charlie already got a job as a school music teacher.

Frank and Christine will run her tavern together. Megan and Charlie are back together. As Jenny is telling Charlie the bad news, Charlie quits his job.

Jenny turns down the operations job. She wants to remain a pilot. And she and Matt seem attracted to each other.