Shuffling Off To Buffalo
Sunwing will begin Buffalo-Cancun service Saturday (Jan. 17), with the tour operator predicting that it will be carrying significant numbers of people from both sides of the Canada-US border to the Mexican sunspot.
Sunwing – which earlier bought US tour operator Vacation Express – expects to see many southern Ontario residents heading to Cancun from Buffalo and also boarding Sunwing planes that will begin flying from Buffalo to Punta Cana as of Valentine’s Day, with the company’s Lawrence Elliott telling a Toronto audience Thursday that “the cost of flying out of Buffalo is considerably lower [than from Ontario] and we’ve passed it along.”
He estimated that flying from Buffalo can result in a savings of $100 to $150 for Ontario residents, citing cheaper fuel in the US and the strength of the US dollar.
Elliott also praised Buffalo’s airport as an “incredible facility… It’s so easy to get in and out of Buffalo.”
Its weekly parking rates start at $45.
Buffalo departures are mid-afternoon on Saturdays.
Sunwing is hoping to make inroads in the US market with Vacation Express, which Elliott labelled the fastest growing tour operator in that country.
The outbound American market is “back with a vengeance,” Elliott continued.
Sunwing will have planes flying from 14 US cities by summer.
Meanwhile, Elliott noted that Sunwing continues to offer new vacation options, including its CHIC property, which opened in Punta Cana before Christmas and a Royalton property in the Cancun area that Elliott said is doing “exceptionally well.”
Pictured at the event are Fernanda Rosas of the Mexico Tourist Board and Elliott.
