London airport details resumption of winter flights to sunny spots

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Fleeing winter cold to warmer climates just got a lot easier for Londoners.

Sunwing and Air Transat will again fly out of London International Airport this winter, officials announced on Monday: Starting in December until April, the charter airlines will be offering weekly flights to Cancun in Mexico, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and Varadero, Cuba.

“We’re very much looking forward to the return of Sunwing and Air Transat flights this winter,” Scott McFadzean, chief executive of London International Airport, said in a statement.

“Flying direct from London takes a lot of the stress out of travel and provides an easy and comfortable flight experience, saving both time and money.”

The flight schedule between London and those destinations will be:

• Sunwing: to Punta Cana weekly on Wednesdays, Cancun on Thursdays and Varadero on Fridays.
• Air Transat: to Cancun weekly on Saturdays and Punta Cana on Sundays.

The airport now has flights daily in and out of London to and from Toronto on Air Canada or WestJet and also offers flights to Calgary, Edmonton and, starting next month, Tucson, Arizona on Flair.

Before the pandemic, warm weather destination flights from London included Florida, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

The airport was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with flights reduced to one a day at its peak. It had 40 flights and 2,500 passengers a day in and out of London before the pandemic struck in March 2020.