No April Fool’s joke, discount airline Sun Country is set to launch direct Minneapolis/St. Paul flights to Reagan Washington National Airport April 1.
The move matters for a couple of reasons. According to OAG there currently is no non-stop competition between the Twin Cities and Reagan National.
Although Sun Country’s 737 makes an en route stop in Lansing on the way to Washington, there is no change of plane. It’s a direct flight, which means there’s less chance of losing your checked luggage.
Reagan National’s location is another bonus. It lies just across the Potomac River, a scant four miles from the center of D.C. By contrast, Washington Dulles is 26 miles west, and Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is a full 32 miles northeast. The D.C. Metrorail system has a stop at Reagan National, offering quick, comparatively inexpensive trips to D.C., and suburban Virginia and Maryland.
On the Minneapolis/St. Paul side of the trip flyers depart and arrive from the airport’s comparatively un-crowded Terminal 2, the Humphrey Terminal.
Minnesotans aren’t the only beneficiaries of Sun Country’s new route. Lansing flyers win too. OAG says there currently is no nonstop service from Michigan’s capital city to any of Washington’s three airports.
One of the reasons for the comparative dearth of nonstop flights from Lansing: it’s within the “air service shadow” of Detroit, some 80 miles away. Many travelers simply drive to Detroit Metropolitan Airport to catch a flight.
Story by Jerry Chandler
