Sun Country Airlines to add nonstop service between Pittsburgh International, Minneapolis

Pittsburgh International Airport will add another budget airline to its stable of carriers beginning next year when Sun Country Airlines adds a nonstop flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul, airport officials announced this week.

“We’re thrilled to have Sun Country’s low-cost service for Pittsburgh travelers heading to the Twin Cities,” said Bryan Dietz, PIT’s vice president of air service and commercial development. “Additionally, we’re looking forward to welcoming Minnesotans to experience all that the Pittsburgh region has to offer.”

The airline will offer the new nonstop flight on Thursdays and Sundays. Flights begin June 2 and are available now for booking. The airline is headquartered at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

Pittsburgh is one of seven new airports to which Sun Country expanded this week, airline officials said. Others include Buffalo/Niagara, N.Y.; Burlington, Vt.; Charleston, S.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Spokane, Wash.; and Vancouver, Canada.

“With more folks eager to resume leisure travel, we’re excited to be able to offer them another option to get away this summer to enjoy the Steel City,” Sun Country revenue officer Grant Whitney said. “We know there is pent-up demand for convenient, affordable travel, and we’re here to help folks enjoy the vacations they’ve been dreaming about.”

Sun Country is the third airline this year to announce service to Pittsburgh, according to Blue Sky, the airport’s in-house online news site. One of them, Contour Airlines, began service to Indianapolis and Milwaukee last week.

The aim of adding the flights from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis and Milwaukee – which fly daily and six days a week, respectively – was to allow for business connections between those cities and Pittsburgh, Contour chief executive Matt Chaifetz told Blue Sky.

“When we drew a radius of the top unserved markets from Indianapolis, Pittsburgh was at the top of our list,” he said. “As we designed the schedule, we also saw the opportunity to connect Milwaukee. We wanted to be the first carrier to offer nonstop service to those markets.”