Sun-Air Continues Relaunch With Second British Route

Credit: Rob Finlayson

Denmark’s Sun-Air, which restarted service last month after a more than two-year shut down because of COVID-19, will bring back flights to Manchester (MAN) in England.

The carrier, which operates flights under the British Airways brand as part of a franchise agreement dating to the 1990s, will connect its Billund (BLL) base in Denmark with MAN. From Oct. 31, the route will be flown 5X-weekly with a 32-seat Dornier 328.

The route, previously operated by Sun-Air, has been dormant since the airline was grounded in March 2020. “Prior to the pandemic, the service operated for over two decades and carried more than 460,000 passengers from Manchester to Billund,” Sun-Air said in a statement.

The carrier ended its long grounding in September when it restarted flights between BLL and London City (LCY).

In addition to BLL, MAN and LCY, other destinations served by Sun-Air prior to the pandemic included Brussels (BRU), Dusseldorf (DUS) and Oslo (OSL). The airline has not indicated if and when those cities will return to its network.

Sun-Air CEO Niels Sundberg said the carrier will “monitor the [BLL-MAN] route closely and will look to increase frequency if we achieve the support on this service that we saw pre-pandemic."

British Airways head of alliances Chris Fordyce added in a statement: “As the aviation industry continues to recover from the pandemic, it’s really encouraging to see Sun-Air restarting routes that have been on hold. This route will offer even greater connectivity between Denmark and the UK, and we look forward to seeing its popularity return.”

MAN CEO Chris Woodroofe said the Sun-Air BLL-MAN route was “a very successful, long-standing service, which plays a crucial role in connecting more than 22 million people in our wider catchment area with 6 million people in mainland Denmark. I am sure that it will prove to be just as popular as it was prior to the pandemic.”

Aaron Karp

Aaron Karp is a Contributing Editor to the Aviation Week Network.