Sunwing Airlines

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Sunwing Airlines
250px
IATA ICAO Callsign
WG SWG SUNWING
Founded 2005
Commenced operations November 17, 2005
Fleet size 38
Destinations 73
Parent company Sunwing Travel Group
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people Mark Williams
Net income Decrease $61 million (2014)
Employees 1,500 (2015)
Sunwing Airlines Boeing 737-800

Sunwing Airlines Inc. is a Canadian low-cost airline headquartered in the Etobicoke district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sunwing Airlines offers scheduled and charter services from Canada and the United States to destinations within the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America, and domestic services across Canada during the summer months.

It is a subsidiary of Sunwing Travel Group and a sister company to Sunwing Vacations/Vacances Sunwing, Signature Vacations/Vacances Signature and SellOffVacations, Canada's largest discount travel retailer. Its main Canadian bases are at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and Vancouver International Airport however it also operates seasonal flight services from over 30 local Canadian gateways. As of 2014, it also launched operations from Buffalo Niagara International Airport, catering to vacationers from both sides of the border. In Quebec, it offers seasonal flights from 5 different gateways and is also the only airline that offers direct flights to Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic departing from Bagotville Airport, Val-d'Or Airport and Sept-Îles Airport.

History

Sunwing Vacations started its in-house airline in November 2005 using Boeing 737-800s to operate domestic flights and flights from Canada to the USA, Mexico, the Caribbean. Since then, its president is Mark Williams, who had been president of Skyservice and had worked with Wardair and Canadian Airlines. On September 29, 2009 Sunwing Airlines' parent company, Sunwing Travel Group, acquired Signature Vacations and SellOffVacations, consequently signed a partnership deal with United Kingdom-based TUI Group which acquired 49% of Sunwing Travel and a 25% voting interest in the venture.[1]

In December 2010, parent company Sunwing Travel Group also acquired Caribbean Nexus Tours (now known as NexusTours), one of the leading ground handlers and incoming tour operator in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, giving more destination tour choices and flexibility to the Sunwing Group.

Sunwing began operating summer charter flights between Canada and European destinations during the summer of 2011. Two of the Boeing 737-800ER are leased to Thomson Airways, which are based at Dublin Airport and Belfast International Airport. Two Boeing 767-300ERs were leased from EuroAtlantic Airways for these services, which connected Toronto to Lisbon, London, Paris, Dublin, Rome, Porto and Amsterdam, and connected Montreal to Paris.[2] In the summer of 2012, Glasgow and Barcelona were added to the list of European destinations. Since then, all flights from Montreal to Paris have been operated in partnership with sister company Corsairfly. As of 2015 Sunwing Airlines offers seasonal flights from Toronto and Amsterdam operated by Arkefly in addition to the Paris to Montreal service.[3]

In February 2012 Sunwing Travel Group announced the 100% acquisition of United States-based Vacation Express. This acquisition would allow Sunwing Airlines to have a more even revenue flow throughout the year, especially during the slower summer months in Canada, Vacation Express' peak selling period being during the summer months, counter-seasonal to Canada.

Awards

As part of the Sunwing Travel Group, Sunwing Airlines was named one of Canada's 100 fastest growing companies by the magazine Profit 100 for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.[4]

Sunwing Airlines was voted by Quebec travel agents as "Airline of the Year" in the travel trade publication Express Voyage in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. This daily electronic newsletter is targeted at travel professionals across the province and is subscribed to by 11,000 readers.[5] The ceremony for "Les Mentions d’Honneur 2011" of Express Voyage took place on December 20, 2011 and Sunwing Airlines won the award of "Airline of the Year" for the fifth consecutive year.[6]

Sunwing Airlines has been recognized by the Consumer Choice Awards for two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015, winning in the category of Aircraft Charter Services for the Greater Toronto Area. In 2010 Sunwing Airlines was one of the nominees at the World Travel Awards in the category "North America's Leading Low-Cost Airline". Sunwing was the only Canadian operator in the charter/low cost industry to be nominated. The other contenders were Virgin America, Spirit Airlines, AirTran Airways, Southwest Airlines, USA3000 Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines. In 2011 and 2012, Sunwing Airlines again represented Canada at the World Travel Awards as a nominee in the category of "North America's Leading Low-Cost Airline".

Destinations

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Main article: Sunwing Airlines destinations

Sunwing Airlines flies to a wide range of vacation destinations across the Caribbean, Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America. The most popular destinations include Varadero, Playa Santa Lucia in Camaguey, Punta Cana, Cancun and Montego Bay.

Sunwing Airlines flies to Cuba over 130 times a week during the winter season. Its parent company, the Sunwing Travel Group, is Cuba's largest travel provider internationally, sending over 700,000 vacationers to the destination each year.

Sunwing Airlines also flies regularly to destinations within the United States, including Orlando and Las Vegas.

During the summer months the airlines services destinations including Cancun, Grand Bahama and Punta Cana from its bases in the United States. As of summer 2015 the airline will operate services from Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Columbus, Houston, Nashville, New Orleans, Newark, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.

In Canada, as well as maintaining year-round service to its most popular destinations, the airline operates several domestic routes, including Toronto to Vancouver which operates daily as of summer 2015. Other connections include Stephenville, Gander and St John's from Toronto.

As of summer 2015, there are also regular flights between Montreal and Paris operated by Corsair, and between Toronto and Amsterdam operated by Arkefly.

Fleet

As of December 2015, the Sunwing Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:[7]

Aircraft In service Passengers Notes
Boeing 737-800 38 189

In early 2015 it was announced that Sunwing had finalised a deal to acquire two Boeing 737-800 and four Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft from Air Lease Corporation in a $350m contract. The aircraft are due to be delivered over a four-year period from early 2016.[8]

Codeshares

Sunwing Airlines has codeshare agreements with the Dutch airline Arkefly on their Summer Boeing-787 Dreamliner service between Toronto and Amsterdam.

References

  1. ↑ Sunwing, Tui Make A Deal. Expressvoyage.ca. Retrieved on 2013-07-26.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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