CLEVELAND, Ohio – Sun Country Airlines, which launched new service from Cleveland Hopkins in May, is exiting the Northeast Ohio market after just one summer.
The carrier, headquartered in Minneapolis, flew just one route from Cleveland, nonstop between Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Cleveland Hopkins four times per week.
A statement from the airline said the seasonal route, which ran from mid-May through early September in 2024, will be paused in 2025.
“It may be back in 2026,” according to the statement. “Like every airline, we continuously evaluate performance of routes, customer demand, and capacity in the market and adjust our network accordingly.”
The small carrier picked a curious time to jump into the Cleveland market, just as Frontier Airlines was mounting a major expansion at Hopkins.
Indeed, Sun Country’s success was likely a victim of too much competition on the route.
In what was likely not a coincidence, Sun Country started its new route on the exact day, May 17, that Frontier relaunched its nonstop flight between the two Midwest cities.
Frontier has also put its Cleveland-to-Minneapolis flight on hiatus, pausing service last month.
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines, which maintains a hub at MSP, continues to offer three-times-daily service between Cleveland and the Twin Cities.
The Cleveland route wasn’t the only flight canceled by Sun Country. The carrier also is discontinuing service from Minneapolis to several other cities, including Asheville, North Carolina, Billings, Montana and Omaha, Nebraska.
The reduction in nonstop routes at Hopkins this fall has led to a leveling-off of passenger volume at the airport.
The airport in September welcomed 836,093 passengers, a slight decrease from September 2023, which saw 838,610 passengers. The reduction was attributed, in part, to two hurricanes in the Southeast United States that disrupted air travel for days.
Year-to-date, passenger volume at Cleveland Hopkins is still up substantially over 2023, with a nearly 6% increase over a year ago.
Airport officials are still predicting that the airport will see more than 10 million passengers in 2024, which would be the highest number since 2008.
Indeed, there are still new flights to come in 2024, including daily nonstop service between Cleveland and Salt Lake City, which Delta is relaunching on Nov. 23.