Sun Country Airlines has announced that it will cut some of its normal routes due to coronavirus fears. The airline currently operates route within the Americas and Caribbean but will forgo some services to stymie any viral transmission whilst new cases of the virus are discovered in the US. Despite the cancelations, the airline's approach means that the majority of affected routes will still operate, only at reduced capacity.
Coronavirus causes cancelations
The ultra-low-cost airline, Sun Country Airlines has said that it will cancel a number of its flights amid coronavirus fears. The airline's announcement coincides with the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Minnesota, where the airline is headquartered and based.
The air carrier conducts its operation out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and serves a number of domestic routes in the US as well as services to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. However, as cases of coronavirus continue to increase in the US, the airline has decided to take some necessary precautions.
From April, Sun Country Airlines will reduce capacity on flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to 14 destinations. The cancelation includes destinations in the US as well as Mexico. Next month, the airline will cancel some flights to the following destinations from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport:
- Los Angeles
- Seattle
- San Francisco
- San Diego
- Phoenix
- Chicago-O’Hare
- Mazatlán, Mexico
- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
In May, the airline will also reduce capacity between Minneapolis-St. Paul and:
- Anchorage
- Boston
- Dallas-Fort Worth
- Las Vegas
- Newark, N.J.
- Fort Myers, Fla.
In addition, the airline will completely cancel three of its services from Portland in Oregon to Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Honolulu in Hawaii.
The reason for flight cancelations
According to Sun Country, whilst the service reduction is necessary, it also causes minimal damage as possible to traveling passengers. A spokesperson for Sun Country told Simple Flying:
"Most of the reductions are in markets where we offer many flights, allowing seamless reaccommodation opportunities for customers."
This ensures that the airline is mitigating the spread of coronavirus as much as possible whilst leaving passengers with options and avoiding extensively damaging its business model.
The spokesperson continued:
"Travel demand is being impacted by the uncertainty around COVID-19, and we’re seeing softness in bookings for April and May. In response, we’ve made targeted capacity adjustments...Our hope is this will be the extent of our schedule changes, but this is a unique situation, so we will continue to closely monitor demand for necessary adjustments. We are working diligently to ensure we’re making smart adjustments that will minimize the impact to our employees and our operation."
However, despite Sun Country's April and May schedule being impacted, the airline has not made adjustments for this month. We can only assume that the airline has forecast some form of profitability through March and coronavirus is only just becoming a threat to the regions in which Sun Country operates.
What is Sun Country Airlines?
Sun Country Airlines is an American airline built on the ultra-low-cost model. It was founded in January 1983 but has battled against a series of bankruptcies to come to the point it is today.
Sun Country operates flights exclusively within the Americas and Caribbean with over 50 destinations and a fleet of 33 aircraft. The carrier owns 32 Boeing 737-800 jets and one 737-700. Sun Country hopes to open several new routes over the course of 2020 including to Vancouver in British Colombia, Canada, and Cleveland, Ohio.
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