Sun Country announces 18 nonstop routes, including 9 new destinations

Sun Country is the latest carrier to shake up its route map during the pandemic.

The Minnesota-based leisure carrier announced 18 routes on Tuesday, part of an expansion that will add nine new cities to its network.

Those new Sun Country cities are:

• Duluth, Minnesota (DLH)
• Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (GCM)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin (GRB)
• Mesa-Phoenix (AZA)
• Milwaukee (MKE)
• Punta Gorda, Florida (PGD)
• Rochester., Minnesota (RST)
• St. Petersburg. Florida (PIE)
• Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (PLS)

Interestingly, that pushes Sun Country into the secondary airports of several markets it already serves.

The carrier's new service to Mesa-Phoenix, for example, comes on top of its existing service to the region's primary airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX).

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It's a similar story in Florida, where Sun Country's flights to Punta Gorda will complement its service from Fort Myers (RSW) – which is only about 35 miles away. And new flights to St. Petersburg will be in addition to Sun County's schedule from two other nearby airports: Tampa (TPA) and Sarasota (SRQ).

At all three of those secondary airports, Sun Country will try to establish a toehold at airports dominant by rival budget carrier Allegiant.

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Overall, Sun Country's expansion focuses on airports in the upper Midwest, including its main base in Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP). MSP landed seven nonstop routes, a number that includes one seasonal route (Bozeman, Montana) that had been scheduled to end but now will be extended later into the season. Milwaukee, one of Sun Country's new cities, also fared well with five nonstop routes.

Sun Country's route update comes as a slow-but-steady uptick in air travel that's been led by leisure flyers.

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"With more and more people excited to resume traveling, we're thrilled to be able to offer them the opportunity to visit these incredible vacation destinations this winter," Grant Whitney, Sun Country's chief revenue officer, said in a statement.

A full list of Sun County's new routes is below. All are seasonal except for the Milwaukee-MSP and Milwaukee-Las Vegas routes.

New routes from Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP)

• Bozeman, Montana (BZN): Begins Dec. 16, when previous seasonal service was set to end (two weekly flights)
• Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (GCM): Begins Dec. 18 (Saturday-only service)
• Mesa-Phoenix (AZA): Begins Nov. 24 (four weekly flights)
• Milwaukee (MKE): Begins Aug. 26 (two weekly flights)
• St. Petersburg, Florida (PIE): Begins Nov. 25 (four weekly flights)
• Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (PLS): Begins Dec. 18 (Saturday-only service)
• Punta Gorda, Florida (PGD): Begins Dec. 10 (two weekly flights)

New routes from Milwaukee (MKE)

• Cancun, Mexico: (CUN): Begins Dec; 18 (Saturday-only service)
• Fort Myers, Florida (RSW): Begins Dec. 15 (two weekly flights)
• Las Vegas (LAS): Begins Aug. 26 (two weekly flights)
• Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP): Begins Aug. 26 (two weekly flights)
• Phoenix (PHX): Begins Dec. 16 (two weekly flights)

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New routes from Duluth, Minnesota (DLH)

• Fort Myers, Florida (RSW): Begins Dec. 17 (two weekly flights)
• Phoenix (PHX): Begins Dec. 17 (two weekly flights)

New routes from Green Bay, Wisconsin (GRB)

• Fort Myers, Florida (RSW): Begins Dec. 16 (two weekly flights)
• Phoenix (PHX): Begins Dec. 17 (two weekly flights)

New routes from Rochester, Minnesota (RST)

• Fort Myers, Florida (RSW): Begins Feb. 3 (two weekly flights)
• Phoenix (PHX): Begins Feb. 4 (two weekly flights)

New route from Madison, Wisconsin (MSN)

• Phoenix (PHX): Begins Dec. 16 (two weekly flights)