Sun Country Airlines kicks off service at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport

Sun Country Airlines met Wine Country on Thursday as the Minnesota-based carrier brought its first flight to the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, part of a seasonal route for Midwesterners looking for a Wine Country getaway.

The airline flew a Boeing 737-800 for the four-hour trip from Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport that landed shortly after noon. The aircraft is the largest plane that currently flies into the airport, said Gina Stocker, marketing specialist for the airport.

The plane can carry 12 passengers in first class and 150 passengers in coach. With the flight, Sun Country is the fourth commercial airline currently serving the airport; Allegiant Air halted operations there last month.

The Eagan, Minn.-based budget carrier will operate the route through Dec. 3 with a Thursday inbound flight and Sunday morning outbound service. Sun Country specializes in flying Minnesotans out to more warmer locales such as Mexico and the Caribbean during winter months, but it has recently expanded its geographic reach under new president and CEO Jude Brickner and now serves 40 cities.

“The addition of Santa Rosa/Sonoma County to Sun Country’s destinations gives our passengers access to experience some of the wonders of California, from Wine Country to the beautiful redwoods,” Bricker said in a statement. “We are thrilled to partner with Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport and look forward to adding this new service to our growing route network.”

Trips to Wine Country make sense for the airline, as Sun Country also has a division that offers vacation packages, allowing customers to book airfare, hotel and rental cars in one transaction, Stoker noted. In addition, Medtronic, which has its operational headquarters in a Minneapolis suburb, has business units in Santa Rosa that employ 840 workers, which could add to Sun Country’s passenger count.

To celebrate the inaugural flight, airport staff on Thursday handed out goody bags to passengers as they deplaned.

Tom Landemeyer, who lives in a Minneapolis suburb, was the first passenger off the flight with his wife and headed toward the car rental area to go wine tasting. “We love it. We usually do the San Fran deal and we would cruise up here and go back to San Francisco,” Landemeyer said.

Ron Timm of Santa Rosa came to the airport to help pass out goody bags. He will fly to Minneapolis on the Sunday flight to visit his sister who lives about 35 miles outside the city. “This is great. The price is right,” Timm said of $316 price for the roundtrip flight. “There is no way I could get it cheaper out of San Francisco. It would cost more, especially for a nonstop.”

Sun Country’s arrival comes as the airport expanded in 2014 to include a longer runway that accommodates larger aircraft. There also are plans to build a new $25 million terminal. Alaska Airlines provides the majority of the airport’s flights, as it has for the past 10 years. American Airlines arrived in February with daily service to Phoenix and United Express in June started three daily flights to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), one of the carrier’s major hubs.

The United flights, for instance, have become popular for local residents who take the 17-minute trip to SFO to transfer to connecting flights, avoiding the hassle of driving to SFO and the higher cost of parking there, Stocker said. In July, United flew 2,621 passengers out of the airport.

With the expanded flights, the airport reached an all-time monthly record for passengers in July with 44,804, a 27 percent increase from the year before.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 707-521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.