If you were staging a contest to find the longest flight from Minnesota, this one definitely wasn't in the running. In fact, this Sun Country flight was likely the shortest to fly out of the Land of 10,000 Lakes, on its way to a nearby airport over in western Wisconsin. But it won't be around much longer.
It was a little over two years ago that Sun Country Airlines, Minnesota's hometown airline, announced that it was adding service from the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport (MSP) to Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Eau Claire, Wisconsin (EAU). Those flights ran a whopping 21 minutes, a distance of just 85 miles, and were part of a $6.5 million annual grant meant to improve travel in rural America.
The route is an EAS flight (short for 'essential air service') meaning that the FAA helped subsidize the cost of those flights to maintain air service to Eau Claire after other airlines announced they were ending service to western Wisconsin several years ago.
Sun Country made that ultra, super, uber-long flight out of the Land of 10,000 Lakes four times a week and offered season service from Eau Claire to places like Orlando, Fort Myers and Las Vegas. When they first started taking bookings, that flight sold for under $10! But it will soon be going away.
That's because it has been confirmed that the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport (CVRA) Commission, which runs the Eau Claire airport, recently voted instead to use a proposal from SkyWest Airlines, a regional airline based in Utah, to utilize the federal subsidy to serve Eau Claire.
Aviation industry site, Airline Geeks, said the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) agreed with the CVRA Commission proposal in a ruling issued last week:
The DOT sided with the airport commission's vote, choosing SkyWest to serve Eau Claire again beginning Dec. 1, 2024. SkyWest's contract will run through November 2027 and includes nearly $7 million in annual subsidies by its third year.
The Airline Geeks story noted that the new proposal contained 'more favorable frequencies for both business and leisure travelers,' it said. SkyWest plans to operate 12 round-trip flights per week between Eau Claire and Chicago O'Hare under the United Express brand, whereas Sun Country only ran four flights a week.
However, if you're still itching to take that short flight from Minneapolis to Eau Claire, you'll still be able to-- even after that federal subsidy ends later this fall. Airline Geeks noted Sun Country plans to keep flying that route through mid-2025, though the price will likely be much higher than the current, federally subsidized price.
And speaking of things that have gone away, keep scrolling to check out some once-popular things from the year you were born that also no longer exist!