Sun Country Announces Decision About its Future in Duluth
Back in April of 2021, the Duluth International Airport announced that low-cost carrier and Minnesota-based Sun Country airlines would begin offering flights from the Twin Ports.
Last year, Sun Country offered flights to Fort Myers, Florida, perfect for Twins fans wanting to catch spring training, and Phoenix, Arizona, perfect for anyone wanting to escape Duluth winter. Now the airline has revealed its plans for late 2022 into 2023.
Starting December 16th, 2022, and continuing through April 17th, 2023 Sun country will again offer direct flights to Phoenix and Fort Myers. Tickets for these flights have gone on sale already for those looking to book a winter getaway early. Flights will operate Mondays and Fridays each week.
Natalie Peterson, Director of Communications & Marketing for the Duluth Airport Authority said in a press release that DLH is "Thrilled to continue our partnership with Sun Country. We’re very excited to bring this service back to our region.”
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Duluth International Airport has seen a nice increase in the number of passengers since hitting a pandemic low point of only 514 passengers in April of 2020, by April 2021, passenger counts were climbing again with a total of 6,653 passengers during that month.
The latest month available for statistics is February of 2022, and during that peak winter travel month, DLH handled 10,207 passengers. That number is just short of what appears to be a record-breaking 12,424 that traveled from DLH in February of 2020, just before the pandemic hit. But the current number is significantly higher than anything ever recorded in February before 2020.