Sun Country plots expansion and ‘big city connectivity’ this summer
Sun Country Airlines has the ultra-low-cost carrier playbook nailed down. The airline has a single crew base in Minneapolis, only Boeing 737s and a singular focus: ”flying people where they want to fly” for low fares, the airline’s chief operating officer Greg Mays told FlightGlobal during the MRO Americas event in Atlanta on 18 April. Sun Country also operates out of of other Midwest cities, especially during winter months, flying “snowbird’ holiday travellers from Madison and Milwaukee (Wisconsin) to balmier places such as Las Vegas and Fort Myers (Florida). But this coming summer, Sun Country plans to tweak its strategy by launching new routes – some seasonal-only – to a host of US cities, offering what Mays calls more “big city connectivity”. In one of the ultra-low-cost carrier’s largest-ever network expansions, Sun Country is in the midst of rolling out 15 new routes. The airline is launching flights from Minneapolis to Charlotte (North Carolina), Columbus (Ohio), Kansas City (Missouri), Richmond (Virginia), Louisville (Kentucky), Colorado Springs, Atlantic City (New Jersey), Omaha (Nebraska) and Detroit (Michigan), among other smaller cities. Most of the flights will operate twice weekly. “We will start operating [out of] Seattle this summer”, with flights to places other than Minneapolis, Mays says. ”We will connect to a lot of big city markets, mostly out of Minneapolis, but we have a big Dallas network during the summer, as well.” Sun Country grew “prudently” during its recovery from the pandemic-related downturn in air travel but aims to get bigger this summer, with plans to be flying 120 routes to 90 airports. “Every block hour we add, we want to add it to scheduled service because it is kind of the best thing right now,” Mays says. “We feel really good about our summer. We have been working very hard operationally to make sure that we are delivering a good operation for our passengers, and there are 15 new markets we are executing on now.”<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-05-01/unaligned/sun-country-plots-expansion-and-2018big-city-connectivity2019-this-summer
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Sun Country plots expansion and ‘big city connectivity’ this summer
Sun Country Airlines has the ultra-low-cost carrier playbook nailed down. The airline has a single crew base in Minneapolis, only Boeing 737s and a singular focus: ”flying people where they want to fly” for low fares, the airline’s chief operating officer Greg Mays told FlightGlobal during the MRO Americas event in Atlanta on 18 April. Sun Country also operates out of of other Midwest cities, especially during winter months, flying “snowbird’ holiday travellers from Madison and Milwaukee (Wisconsin) to balmier places such as Las Vegas and Fort Myers (Florida). But this coming summer, Sun Country plans to tweak its strategy by launching new routes – some seasonal-only – to a host of US cities, offering what Mays calls more “big city connectivity”. In one of the ultra-low-cost carrier’s largest-ever network expansions, Sun Country is in the midst of rolling out 15 new routes. The airline is launching flights from Minneapolis to Charlotte (North Carolina), Columbus (Ohio), Kansas City (Missouri), Richmond (Virginia), Louisville (Kentucky), Colorado Springs, Atlantic City (New Jersey), Omaha (Nebraska) and Detroit (Michigan), among other smaller cities. Most of the flights will operate twice weekly. “We will start operating [out of] Seattle this summer”, with flights to places other than Minneapolis, Mays says. ”We will connect to a lot of big city markets, mostly out of Minneapolis, but we have a big Dallas network during the summer, as well.” Sun Country grew “prudently” during its recovery from the pandemic-related downturn in air travel but aims to get bigger this summer, with plans to be flying 120 routes to 90 airports. “Every block hour we add, we want to add it to scheduled service because it is kind of the best thing right now,” Mays says. “We feel really good about our summer. We have been working very hard operationally to make sure that we are delivering a good operation for our passengers, and there are 15 new markets we are executing on now.”<br/>
