Sun Air Express

Last updated
Sun Air Express
Sun Air Express logo.jpg
IATA ICAO Callsign
6GFDYFRIENDLY
Commenced operations2012
Ceased operationsMarch 7, 2016 (bought by Southern Airways Express) [1]
Fleet size12
Destinations8
Parent company Sun Air Express, LLC
Headquarters Dania Beach, Florida, USA
Key peoplePhilip LeFevre (President, COO) Mark Cestari (VP Marketing)
Roy Canter (VP Customer Care)
Website http://www.flysunairexpress.com

Sun Air Express was a United States airline with its headquarters in Dania Beach, Florida in Greater Miami (the headquarters had a Fort Lauderdale mailing address). [2] [3] It operates charter services as well as scheduled passenger services subsidized under the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) program.

Contents

The airline ended subsidized scheduled service to Victoria Regional Airport from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas on October 31, 2014 after its two-year EAS contract expired. [4] A little over a month later Sun Air began service from Washington Dulles International Airport to Lancaster Airport (Pennsylvania) and Hagerstown Regional Airport in Maryland. [5]

Sun Air had planned to begin service between Atlanta and Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon, Georgia on December 1, 2012. [6] However, the airline decided to pull out of the airport deal. [7]

Sun Air Express had a focus city at Pittsburgh International Airport and provided frequent daily service to Altoona, Hagerstown (Maryland), Jamestown (New York), Lancaster, Bradford and Franklin/Oil City.

Upon beginning scheduled service, Sun Air Express' passenger bookings were handled by Pacific Wings and their flight listings in travel reservation systems were under Pacific Wings' IATA code, LW. On April 21, 2015, Sun Air Express flights began being handled by and listed under the code of Mokulele Airlines, (6G). [8]

As of November 2013, Sun Air International received $6,583,848 in annual Federal subsidies for Essential Air Services that they provided to Hagerstown, Maryland, Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Victoria, Texas airports in the U.S. [9]

On March 7, 2016, Southern Airways Express bought Sun Air Express for an undisclosed amount. It will continue the routes currently running and will keep the focus cities that were established by Sun Air. The company withdrew from its Jamestown service after losing Essential Air Service funding. [10]

Destinations

StateCity servedAirportNotes
Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania Altoona Altoona–Blair County Airport
Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania Bradford Bradford Regional Airport [11]
Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania Franklin Venango Regional Airport [12]
Flag of New York.svg  New York Jamestown Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport
Flag of Maryland.svg  Maryland Hagerstown Hagerstown Regional Airport
Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania Lancaster Lancaster Airport (Pennsylvania)
Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Pittsburgh International Airport Focus City
Flag of Virginia.svg  Virginia Flag of Washington, D.C..svg  Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington Dulles International Airport

Fleet

Sun Air International Piper Navajo N7090B at IAD. Sun Air International.jpg
Sun Air International Piper Navajo N7090B at IAD.
AircraftIn servicePassengersNotes
Piper PA-31 Navajo 98
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan [13] 39All aircraft leased from and operated by Mokulele Airlines.

See also

Related Research Articles

Silver Airways Florida-based airline

Silver Airways LLC. is a United States regional airline with its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. It was founded in 2011 with assets from the former Gulfstream International Airlines, and currently operates scheduled flights from its hubs in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida; and a smaller base in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It started flying on December 15, 2011.

Cape Air Airline of the United States

Hyannis Air Service, Inc., operating as Cape Air, is an airline headquartered at Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis, Massachusetts, United States. It operates scheduled passenger services in the Northeast, the Caribbean, Midwest, and Eastern Montana. Flights between Hyannis and Nantucket, Massachusetts, are operated under the Nantucket Airlines brand, also operated by Hyannis Air Service, Inc. The company slogan is We're your wings.

Presque Isle International Airport

Presque Isle International Airport, formally Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle, is a mile northwest of Presque Isle, in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. It serves the residents of Presque Isle and a vast area of northern Maine and northwestern New Brunswick. Airline flights to Newark Liberty International Airport are subsidized by the federal government's Essential Air Service program at a cost of $3,892,174.

Bradford Regional Airport

Bradford Regional Airport is 11 miles south of Bradford, in Lafayette Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania. It has scheduled airline service subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

Altoona–Blair County Airport

Altoona–Blair County Airport is in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, 14 miles south of Altoona, in Blair County, Pennsylvania. It is owned by the Blair County Airport Authority. The airport has a few airline flights, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

Athens–Ben Epps Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Athens, a city in Clarke County, Georgia, United States. The airport is named after Ben T. Epps, the first aviator in the state of Georgia, who opened the airport in 1917. It is mostly used for general aviation, though it was formerly served by one commercial airline with scheduled passenger service subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

Middle Georgia Regional Airport

Middle Georgia Regional Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located nine nautical miles south of the central business district of Macon, a city in Bibb County, Georgia, United States. It is mostly used for general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline.

Greenbrier Valley Airport is three miles north of Lewisburg in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. SkyWest Airlines schedules airline flights, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program, to Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Washington–Dulles International Airport. Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 7,153 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 4,651 in 2009 and 12,293 in 2010. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a non-primary commercial service airport based on enplanements in 2008/2009.

Morgantown Municipal Airport

Morgantown Municipal Airport is three miles east of Morgantown, in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is also known as Walter L. Bill Hart Field. It sees one passenger airline, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport

Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport is seven miles northeast of Parkersburg, in Wood County, West Virginia. It is owned by the Wood County Airport Authority and is also known as Wood County Airport or Gill Robb Wilson Field. It serves the Mid-Ohio Valley area which includes the Ohio cities of Marietta and Belpre and the West Virginia cities of Williamstown, Parkersburg and Vienna. It has scheduled passenger service subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

Venango Regional Airport, also known as Chess Lamberton Field, is a public airport in western Pennsylvania, 2 miles (3 km) southwest of Franklin and about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Oil City. Both cities are in Venango County, which operates the airport. The airport had limited airline service, which was subsidized by the Essential Air Service program until October 2019.

Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport is in Weyers Cave, Virginia, 12 miles northeast of Staunton. It is used for general aviation and is served by one airline, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

DuBois Regional Airport, formerly DuBois–Jefferson County Airport, is in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, eight miles northwest of DuBois, a city in Clearfield County. The airport is in Washington Township. It is owned and operated by the Clearfield-Jefferson Counties Regional Airport Authority, based at the airport. It has scheduled service on one airline, Southern Airways Express, subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.

Johnstown–Cambria County Airport

John Murtha Johnstown–Cambria County Airport is a civil-military airport three miles (5 km) northeast of Johnstown, in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. It is owned by Johnstown–Cambria County Airport Authority and is named after the late Congressman John Murtha. It sees one airline, subsidized by the Essential Air Service.

Lancaster Airport (Pennsylvania)

Lancaster Airport is a public use airport four nautical miles north of the central business district of Lancaster, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned by the Lancaster Airport Authority. It is served by one commercial airline and one charter airline.

Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport

Chautauqua County/Jamestown Airport at Robert H. Jackson Field is a county-owned, public-use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) north of the central business district of Jamestown, in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. It is mostly used for general aviation.

Victoria Regional Airport

Victoria Regional Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport located five nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Victoria, a city in Victoria County, Texas, United States. It is mostly used for military and general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline with this scheduled passenger service being subsidized by the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) program.

Hagerstown Regional Airport Airport in Maryland, United States of America

Hagerstown Regional Airport is in Washington County, Maryland, five miles north of Hagerstown, Maryland and a half mile from the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. The airport is off Interstate 81 at exit 10 and U.S. Route 11, not far from Northern Virginia, South Central Pennsylvania, and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Southern Airways Express Airline of the United States

Southern Airways Express is a commuter airline operating across the United States with headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida. Southern Airways acts as a local service airline for dozens of cities across all U.S. time zones, Approximately a third of its routes are subsidized through the Essential Air Service program by the United States Department of Transportation.

References

  1. http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2016/03/08/memphis-southern-airways-acquires-connecting.html [ bare URL ]
  2. "Contact Us." (Archive) Sun Air International. Retrieved on March 30, 2013. "Mailing Address Sun Air International 3201 Griffin Road Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33312"
  3. "2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Dania Beach city, FL 001." (Archive). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on March 30, 2013.
  4. Miles, Allison. Victoria air service resumes with Sun Air, Victoria Advocate, October 1, 2012, Retrieved 2012-11-08
  5. Stauffer, Cindy. First Sun Air flight takes off from Lancaster Airport, Intelligencer Journal / Lancaster New Era, November 5, 2012, Retrieved 2012-11-08
  6. Lockwood, Erica. New Airline Picked for Macon-Atlanta Service, WMAZ, September 7, 2012, Retrieved 2012-11-08
  7. "Sun Air Pulls Out of Macon Deal".
  8. McCarthy, Jimmy. Sun Air Express Changing Reservation Company, Jamestown Post-Journal, February 14, 2015, Retrieved 2015-03-02
  9. http://www.dot.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/Subsidized%20EAS%20web%20report%20for%20non-Alaska%20communities-Nov%202013.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  10. "Reed Critical After Southern Airways Vacates City Airport".
  11. De Lancey, Fran. New airline to start March 1 at Bradford airport, The Bradford Era, January 15, 2015, Retrieved 2015-01-17
  12. Gordon, Sam. , The Titusville Herald, February 26, 2015, Retrieved 2015-03-02
  13. "Sun Air Express to lease three Cessna Caravans".