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| Founded | 2005 | |||
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| Hubs | Toronto Pearson Int'l Airport Montréal-Trudeau Int'l Airport |
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| Fleet size | 23 | |||
| Destinations | 69 | |||
| Company slogan | Fly better! Experience the difference! | |||
| Parent company | Sunwing Travel Group | |||
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario | |||
| Key people | Colin Hunter (Chairman) Stephen Hunter (President and CEO) Mark Williams (President) |
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| Website | www.flysunwing.com | |||
Sunwing Airlines Inc. is an airline headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, offering scheduled and chartered services to Canada, the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Central America, South America as well as domestic services during the summer season. It is a subsidiary of Sunwing Travel Group and a sister company to Sunwing Vacations/Vacances Sunwing, Signature Vacations/Vacances Signature as well as SellOffVacations, Canada's largest discount travel retailer.[1] Its main Canadian gateways are Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport. The airline also has operations at Calgary International Airport and Québec/Jean Lesage International Airport. It is also the only airline which offers nonstop flights to Mexico, Cuba and Dominican Republic departing from Bagotville Airport, Val-d'Or Airport and Sept-Îles Airport.
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Sunwing Vacations started its in-house airline in November 2005 using Boeing 737-800s to operate flights from Canada to the USA, Mexico, the Caribbean, as well as domestic flights. Since then, its President is Mark Williams, who previously was President of Skyservice and had also worked with Wardair and Canadian Airlines.
Sunwing Airlines merged with Signature and SellOffVacations on September 29, 2009, consequently signing a partnership deal with UK based TUI Travel.
In December 2010 parent company Sunwing Travel Group acquired Caribbean Nexus Tours, 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.
The Winter of 2010/2011 was a great success for Sunwing Airlines. With a fleet of 20 aircraft (11 of which were leased), they competed with Air Transat, Air Canada and Westjet for the top vacation get-a-way airline in the Canadian market. This prompted the airline to grow even more and they have now begun to compete with Air Transat in the European market. They recently arranged a deal with EuroAtlantic Airways and acquired 2 Boeing 767-300ER's in order to complete flights from Toronto to Lisbon, London, Paris, Dublin, Rome, Porto and Amsterdam as well as Montreal to Paris.
As of May 2011, Sunwing Airlines employs over 1600 staff.
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 the year 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.[2]
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.[3] The ceremony for "Les Mentions d’Honneur 2011" of Express Voyage took place on December 20th 2011 and Sunwing Airlines won the award of "Airline of the Year" for the fifth consecutive year.[4]
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 contender were Virgin America, Spirit Airlines, AirTran Airways, Southwest Airlines, USA3000 Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines. [4]
In 2011, Sunwing Airlines was onced again the only operator representing Canada at the World Travel Awards as a nominee in the category of "North America's Leading Low-Cost Airline". The ceremony took place in Montego Bay on October 7 2011. [5]
In March 2011 Sunwing Airlines announced it will enter the European market, offering flight from Toronto to Paris, London, Rome, Dublin, Amsterdam, Porto as well as Montreal to Paris[6], operating two Boeing 767-300ER leased from Euro Atlantic Airways. They also signed a partnership with MSC Cruises, allowing passengers to fly to Rome or Amsterdam and transfer to nearby ports for a one week cruise before returning to Canada.[7]
Summer 2012 will see the addition of Glasgow and Barcelona to the list of European destinations, while all flights from Montreal to Paris will now be operated in partnership with sister company Corsairfly.
The onboard service of Sunwing Airlines includes a complementary snack and choice of hot meal served with complimentary glass of wine (not available on flights within United States or Canada), complimentary non-alcoholic beverages, hot towels, complimentary pre-flight champagne on flights leaving Canada as well as mint chocolates before landing. The aircraft are equipped with overhead TVs showing in-flight movies; headsets are distributed for free.[8]
As of December 2011, the Sunwing Airlines fleet consists of 23 Boeing 737-800 aircraft with an average age of 5.0 years, each of which is equipped with winglets and a 189 passenger seats in a high-density economy class cabin layout. All aircraft are leased (8 from Thomson Airways, 5 from Travel Service Airlines, 3 from ACG, 2 from Tuifly, 2 from CIT, 1 each from ILFC, Icelandair, and Jetairfly).[9]