Flights connecting MSP and MHT are now official

Sun Country Airlines marked its first ever flight into and out of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) last Thursday, marking the beginning of weekly flights connecting MHT and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). Founded in 1982 with headquarters at MSP, Sun Country is a hybrid low-cost leisure carrier with flights to over 150 locations throughout North America and the Caribbean. While Sun Country has operated unscheduled charter flights into MHT before, Thursday's flight marked the first passenger flight and an investment of over $2 million in annual operating capital into Manchester. "I express my deep appreciation to Sun Country that you decided Manchester is a community worthy of investing your hard-earned operating revenue into," said Manchester-Boston Regional Airport Director Ted Kitchens. Deerfield resident Dylan Register was the first passenger off the plane upon its arrival from MSP and had no idea his flight was special until about five minutes before he landed. "This is pretty crazy," he said. "Coming here from Minneapolis is much shorter than going to Boston. I hope (Sun Country) continues doing these flights." Register said that the flight was enjoyable, a sentiment shared by Minnesota residents Shannon and Jeff Horsager. The Horsagers have travelled to New Hampshire and have travelled on Sun Country and were glad that now they could do both at the same time. "Oh yeah, we like Sun Country," said Shannon. "I hope they keep it up, because we really enjoy it. This is a much simpler flight than going into Boston, we're excited to come right into Manchester." Rich MacNeill of Laconia was one of the passengers bound on the return voyage to Minneapolis to visit family. He was pleased with the convenience of taking the flight here rather than at Logan International Airport in Boston. "This is a much easier airport to navigate than Boston," he said. "It takes half the time to get here and everyone's so friendly." Sun Country is the fourth new airline to come to MHT in the past three years, following Spirit, Avelo and Breeze. Jet Blue is slated to join that list, with flights scheduled to begin in January.