Sun Country adds 4 new cities amid seasonal route expansion
Sun Country Airlines will land in four new cities next summer, amid a 12-route seasonal expansion from its Dallas/Fort Worth, Madison and Minneapolis/St. Paul bases.
The Minneapolis-based carrier will add Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Bozeman (BZN) in Montana, Cleveland (CLE) and Portland (PWM) in Maine to its network beginning in May, Sun Country announced Tuesday. Baltimore will replace Washington Dulles (IAD) as Sun Country's D.C.-area airport from Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP).
In addition, Sun Country will begin flights between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and three cities: Liberia (LIR) in Costa Rica, and Los Cabos (SJD) and Puerto Vallarta (PVR) in Mexico next summer. The airline will also add service between Madison (MSN) and Boston (BOS), Nashville (BNA), Newark (EWR), Portland (PDX) in Oregon, and Seattle Tacoma (SEA).
Sun Country flies Boeing 737 aircraft.
Related: Sun Country Now Up to 13 Nonstop Destinations From Las Vegas
"We are excited to expand our seasonal summer routes in these key markets, and to expand our network into new airports," said Jude Bricker, CEO of Sun Country, in a statement.
The new routes come amid a period of rapid growth for Sun Country. The airline's network will be 72% larger by next summer than it was in June 2018 with the new routes announced Tuesday, it said.
In addition, Sun Country launched a new partnership with bus operator Landline to connect its Minneapolis/St. Paul hub with smaller communities in the Upper Midwest on Monday. The service initially connects the MSP airport with Duluth (DLH) and Mankato (MKT) in Minnesota, but Bricker told TPG on the inaugural run that they would like to add at least two more cities in the near future.
"It translates real well to drives of about two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half hours to the Twin Cities," he said.
Related: Sun Country launches new Landline bus connections
Of Sun Country's 12 new routes, it faces competition on many of them. American Airlines flies all three routes from Dallas/Fort Worth, and Spirit Airlines flies seasonally between DFW and Los Cabos, according to Diio by Cirium schedules. Delta Air Lines flies between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Baltimore/Washington, Bozeman and Cleveland, with Southwest Airlines and Spirit also flying the Minneapolis-Baltimore route.
From Madison, Sun Country will only face competition to Newark, which is also served by United Airlines, Diio shows.
Details of the latest route additions, which are all seasonal, are below:
- DFW-Liberia: weekly on Saturday from June 13
- DFW-Los Cabos: twice-weekly on Wednesday and Saturday from June 3
- DFW-Puerto Vallarta: twice-weekly on Monday and Friday from June 5
- Madison-Boston: twice-weekly on Thursday and Sunday from May 7
- Madison-Nashville: twice-weekly on Thursday and Sunday from May 7
- Madison-Newark: twice-weekly on Monday and Friday from May 8
- Madison-Portland (Oregon): twice-weekly on Wednesday and Saturday from June 3
- Madison-Seattle: twice-weekly on Monday and Friday from May 8
- MSP-Baltimore/Washington: twice-weekly from May 8, four-times weekly on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday from June 4
- MSP-Bozeman: twice-weekly on Wednesday and Saturday from June 20
- MSP-Cleveland: twice-weekly on Friday and Sunday from May 29
- MSP-Portland (Maine): twice-weekly on Thursday and Sunday from June 18
Related: Flying Sun Country's 737-800 From Minneapolis to Newark