Sun Country - Canceling flights to Hawaii

I'm surprised they didn't pull the plug sooner when COVID restrictions were making tourism very difficult. I'm pretty sure most of the Hawaii flights were sold as 1-stop same-plane through flights from MSP, like MSP-SFO/PDX-HNL. Through the 2000s, Sun Country did lots of public charters to HNL/OGG via West Coast cities from MSP with DC-10s, but the scheduled flights didn't come until the mid to late 2010s IIRC. Loads were actually very high on the daily SFO-HNL when it was operating pre-COVID, so Sun Country was at least filling jets but I have no idea what the profit margin was offering low fares between MSP/HNL in a 737-800. The SFO-HNL segment was often sold for $250-300 roundtrip after tax, with Alaska, Hawaiian, and United usually $400-500.

The crews will still probably get to do lots of military charters to HIK, used to get (military base)-SFO-HIK charters a few times per month for years, I'd imagine they'll return and are probably run via other West Coast cities.
 
ChasenSFO said:
I'm surprised they didn't pull the plug sooner when COVID restrictions were making tourism very difficult. I'm pretty sure most of the Hawaii flights were sold as 1-stop same-plane through flights from MSP, like MSP-SFO/PDX-HNL. Through the 2000s, Sun Country did lots of public charters to HNL/OGG via West Coast cities from MSP with DC-10s, but the scheduled flights didn't come until the mid to late 2010s IIRC. Loads were actually very high on the daily SFO-HNL when it was operating pre-COVID, so Sun Country was at least filling jets but I have no idea what the profit margin was offering low fares between MSP/HNL in a 737-800. The SFO-HNL segment was often sold for $250-300 roundtrip after tax, with Alaska, Hawaiian, and United usually $400-500.

The crews will still probably get to do lots of military charters to HIK, used to get (military base)-SFO-HIK charters a few times per month for years, I'd imagine they'll return and are probably run via other West Coast cities.
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This is all pretty accurate. Ultimately, it's just a reallocation of resources which are stretched thin. There are other areas with better profit margins, especially in light of fuel costs. Will probably be back within a year or two if some of the pressure can be relieved in terms of pilot/mechanic/airplane shortages.

*"All" flights according to the article is inaccurate. All sched service flights.
 
nibake said:
There are other areas with better profit margins, especially in light of fuel costs.
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Hawaii has never been a high yield market. There is too much competition, and too much of the traffic (all of it) is leisure travelers. Normally what happens is that everybody tosses capacity into the market when US-EU (or sometimes US-Asia) traffic isn't doing well, because they have spare aircraft and it's better to make a little bit of money with them where they can. And then the big Europe routes recover and capacity gets pulled back, and yields go up slightly and then the whole process repeats.
 
nibake said:
This is all pretty accurate. Ultimately, it's just a reallocation of resources which are stretched thin. There are other areas with better profit margins, especially in light of fuel costs. Will probably be back within a year or two if some of the pressure can be relieved in terms of pilot/mechanic/airplane shortages.

*"All" flights according to the article is inaccurate. All sched service flights.
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This is all correct. PANC also cut due to fuel costs


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azmedic said:
This is all correct. PANC also cut due to fuel costs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Anchorage surprises me because of the long-standing links between MSP and Alaska, with both lots of leisure traffic given most people have outdoor hobbies in the MN and also because many people in the Minneasota\The Dakotas do seasonal work in Alaska. My relatives in Minnesota mostly barely travel, yet it seems they've all been to ANC and LAS. I wonder if Alaska starting ANC-MSP had anything to do with it, as I'd have assumed that SY would just raise fares rather than stop serving ANC, especially now that they offer connections as of recent years.
 
Didn't Sun Country have a scheduled flight to somewhere in Europe in recent years? Or am I imagining things? I know they go there on charters.....
 
Jimmy_Norton said:
Didn't Sun Country have a scheduled flight to somewhere in Europe in recent years? Or am I imagining things? I know they go there on charters.....
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No. I think some have conflated it with JB, perhaps. No sched service to Europe. Currently sched service goes no farther than Central America/Caribbean.
 
for many here in the Twin Cities SC used to be a viable option vs NWA/Delta but since they went the ULCC route it is no longer that way. They have left people in other countries with having to find their own way back. Due to their limited aircraft (in comparison to other options) when they have to cancel it is damn near impossible to book the next flight / next day.

I tried to warn my wife when she visited SEA with friends via SC but she didn’t listen. it was nothing but trouble and all i heard when she got back was…. “I should have listened”.

Nothing against the pilots and crew working there but they will never get our money again. if the crap hits the fan it’s good to have options and they just don’t have it. As long as people know what they are getting then so be it.
 
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