Sunwing winter flights are back at Hamilton airport

The holiday season is around the corner, and so are weekly direct flights from Hamilton to tropical destinations.

Sunwing Airlines, known for operating flights between Canada to the sunny south, is bringing back its weekly direct flights from John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport to the southern destinations of Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Starting in December, the weekly flights to beach resort countries will be destined for Cancun in Mexico, Cayo Coco, Varadero and Holguin in Cuba, and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The direct flights will operate for four months until the second week of April.

This year, the airline dropped Montego Bay, Jamaica, from Hamilton's direct flight itinerary and added Varadero and Holguin in Cuba to the list.

Andrew Dawson, president of tour operations for Sunwing, told the The Spectator the five destinations for this year are our most popular and sought-after sun destinations among our customers in the Hamilton area, the surrounding Niagara Region and the western GTA."

Dawson said the company is already seeing incredible demand" for winter travel, with overall capacity well over double that of the previous winter season."

The Etobicoke-based low-cost airline has operated in the Hamilton region since 2013.

We're thrilled that Sunwing will return to Hamilton International Airport this December as sunseekers in the region look to escape the snow and embark on a tropical getaway this winter," Cole Horncastle, executive managing director for John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, said in a release.

With 189 seats per flight and five flights per week out of Hamilton International Airport, the airline will accommodate more than 15,000 Hamilton-area residents over four months this winter season, said Dawson.

Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com