Sun Country fly Minneapolis/Stansted

[Hartington]

Sun Country Airlines : London Landing Page (http://www.suncountry.com/programs/LondonLandingPage.shtml)

Just once a week with a stop in Gander for fuel using 737-800.

They provide a link to the Stansted home page so that people can book onward flights. Since many, if not most, flights from Stansted are loco I wonder how many "horror" stories about missed "connections" we're going to see?

[Alsacienne]

Ryanair fly 737-800s and even a short haul flight with them is most uncomfortable for many passengers because the seat pitch is so narrow. Gawd knows how one will last TATL!! No films, and only one audio channel.

Can anyone give me some more info on this company - such as how many planes it has available for back up ... (Varsity Air anyone?) and whether CPAP machines are allowed to be used on board? (I did try asking them, but as I'm a European, their form didn't like my answers to questions such as country or zip code.)

[ericlday]

Sun Country Airlines current fleet

Boeing 737-700 2 129 (12/117)(First/Coach)
Boeing 737-800 9 162 (12/150)(First/Coach)

[Avman]

ALSACIENNE, with a few ups-and-downs, Sun Country Airlines has been around since 1982. Definitely not a Varsity Air comparison. However, I do question the likely success of this route.

[ExXB]

From the link: “London is a great summer destination and we are looking forward to providing customers with a new way across the Atlantic. In addition, London’s Stansted airport is one of the best connection points to the continent with numerous flights on Europe’s leading low-fare airlines Ryanair and easyJet,” said Stan Gadek, Sun Country president and CEO.

From Cryanair: Ryanair is a 'point-to-point' airline. We therefore do not offer, and cannot facilitate, the transfer of passengers or their baggage to other flights, whether operated by Ryanair or other carriers.Passengers should not book onward flights connections with Ryanair or indeed with any other air or surface carrier.

Ryanair accepts no responsibility for making connections and therefore will not be liable for any losses or expenses arising out of any failure to achieve a planned connection.

and Squeezy: If you have booked an onward flight with easyJet, this represents a separate contract.

I'm sorry Stan, but I don't think either want your business, and you might want to be careful with comments like this, someone who misconnects will likely blame you.

[Flightmech]

They have been around for some time. Worked on their DC-10s a few times. They also had 727s with HUDs!

[PaperTiger]

SY is looking for military charter work in the future. One of the qualification requirements is 1 year ETOPS experience, which might explain this rather bizarre 'service'.

[davidjohnson6]

PaperTiger - Sun Country began the route on 11 June 2010, and are ending it on 15 August 2010. Is some other transatlantic destination planned, as I'm not sure how this alone would fulfil the 1 year of ETOPS

[PaperTiger]

OK, it doesn't explain it :) , in which case I'm at a loss....

No disrespect to Minnesotans but it's not exactly right up there on anyone's "must do" list.

[angels]

My mind still can't get around the idea of flying the pond in a 738!!

[JKKne]

Looking at the timetables the plane sits on the grounds for a near 30 hours before heading back out to the States.

On the 737's, Astreus used 737's to Canada from Gatwick

[PAXboy]

If it sits on the ground for the entire time of crew rest - it saves having another crew. If they are testing the route for a limited time, then that would be the cheapest way to do it. It also allows for any tech issues to be dealt with, I surmise.

[angels]

Then they must be crossing their fingers that the pilots don't tuck into a dodgy ruby while they're at their Stansted B&B!!

[obgraham]

Since SunCountry's main business is flying folks out of MSP in the winter when it is -40, to some place warmer, I expect they have a plane sitting around unused in the summer.
May as well fly it across the creek.

Doesn't sound like fun, though. Known for being cheap, not for service.

[WHBM]

I suspect the bulk of the passenger load comes from the Minneapolis end (where they are well-known) rather than from the London end.

Minneapolis has just one daily service from London, on Delta (ex-Northwest) and that seems to be marketed principally as a hub connector to places further west. As a result the fares are notably higher than on comparable transatlantic routes.

Go back a generation and there were many transatlantic charter flights in summertime, by both European and US operators, and they all seemed to fill up well. Nobody went round questioning whether all those stretched DC8s at Gatwick had a good load or not. Because they all did.

A 737-800 has exactly the same fuselage width as every standard-body Boeing built since 1958, including 707s in the days when they dominated the route, through to 757s which plenty of operators use nowadays. The only difference is length, and as nobody nowadays seems to walk the length of the aircraft, nobody notices that.

Charter operators (for that is what Sun Country effectively are) in Northern US and Canada have a seasonality the opposite of many European operators, peak in the winter, taking people down to the Caribbean etc, and low season in the summer, when the locals prefer to just drive up to their cabin by the lake and the airlines have to get inventive to keep the fleet going.

[radeng]

With the temperatures they've had in Minny-no-place this week, there could well have been plenty of people wanting to get out! It was VERY hot, and I was glad to get back home to the cool, rainy, cloudy UK.

[jabird]

I note this route seems to have switched to LGW for last summer, and is still showing on their route map, but no mechanism to even check availability.

I would have thought any ta route would always be better fed at both ends - and any discount against £700+ fares in summer welcomed - after all, the Delta service is only a 767. The bit about loco conx was crazy though, if pax want to do that, fine, never encourage it!

So has this gone for good, or is there still some plan to bring it back?

[WHBM]

I would have thought any ta route would always be better fed at both ends
Not necessarily; Sun Country have long been well known in their home town Minneapolis as a holiday charter/leisure carrier to places like Las Vegas, Florida and the Caribbean, and will have their marketing and distribution all in place, but have nothing in the UK; it would be far too expensive for them to do any promotion over here where 99.999% of the audience of any paid advertising have no intention of visiting Minneapolis.

There are plenty of examples of routes which only have feed at one end; the whole of the IT industry from northern Europe down to the Mediterranean was built on this, and in fact only in more recent years were such flights even been permitted to pick up pax originating at the southern end.

[jabird]

Not necessarily; Sun Country have long been well known in their home town Minneapolis as a holiday charter/leisure carrier to places like Las Vegas, Florida and the Caribbean, and will have their marketing and distribution all in place, but have nothing in the UK

Yes, fair point. I was referring to demand for the route, as opposed to how it is serviced. Without a significant tourist infrastructure, I would imagine a good portion of traffic on LON-MSP is VFR, which would be healthy at both ends, whereas I would imagine there is always a good tourist draw to LON from just about anywhere with population.

People also will always have ways of finding routes if they want to go somewhere - but anyway, for the time being at least, it looks like this route is a dead duck.

[Skipness One Echo]

Wasn't this really just a jolly to keep their ETOPS current? They use it in winter a lot to the Carribbean? I could be wrong but I recall that being the explanation.

[offhandblackhand]

Military and D.H.S. contracts, recently been going to Japan via Hawaii. And you reckon Europe via 737 would be no fun.

[Rollingthunder]

Mainland USA to Caribbean - EROPS/ETOPS ???

[Skipness One Echo]

Mainland USA to Caribbean - EROPS/ETOPS ???

Ah quite right, so if it's not Hawaii then it's duff gen and I withdraw it completely. I was told it was to maintain currency on overwater flying.