Sunwing Finalizes Winter Schedule Without The MAX 8

Sunwing has announced that all flight services during the coming winter season will now be operated without the Boeing 737 MAX 8.

The new schedule comes into effect on Nov. 5 and runs until mid-May 2020. While the move has been prompted by the ongoing worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, officials said that being able to offer an excellent customer experience and provide their clients with much-needed reassurance while planning their upcoming winter vacation with confidence were equally important factors in their decision.

President of Tour Operations for Sunwing, Andrew Dawson, commented, “The worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft created operational difficulties for us during the summer months when we did not have additional capacity within our fleet to replace this aircraft type. In order to maintain our customers’ vacation plans, it was necessary to contract flying with third-party carriers and make schedule changes or cancellations to over 3,000 flights. We acknowledge the options our customers were presented with to maintain their travel plans may have caused them an inconvenience and we appreciate the understanding and flexibility shown by both our travel agent partners and our customers during this period.

“Proactively revising our winter schedule will ensure that all future scheduled flying is operated entirely on Boeing 737-800s, sporting Sunwing’s familiar and distinctive orange tails, so that we can offer our customers the same exceptional value and award-winning inflight experience they have been accustomed to. With these changes, our customers should feel more confident about booking their vacations or destination weddings early and taking advantage of the best deals and Early Booking Bonuses we’ve ever offered.”

All schedule changes required to accommodate the change in aircraft type have already been made and are now live on the company’s website and reservation system, through to mid-May 2020. Should the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft become available during the course of the winter, the company will evaluate opportunities to add capacity or reintegrate them into the fleet at that time. Any customers who have been affected by these changes have been notified either directly or through their travel agent, depending on how their reservation was confirmed.