Sun Country Airlines is giving New York City the cold shoulder starting Sunday, but trips are scheduled to resume in the spring.

The Mendota Heights-based airline will suspend flights into John F. Kennedy International Airport in the post-holiday months to focus on more profitable routes to warmer climes such as Mexico, the Caribbean, California and Florida, Sun Country's Wendy Williams Blackshaw said Monday.

The airline did the same thing last year and picked up New York flights again in March, she said.

Twin Cities travelers heading to the Big Apple already have noticed the price increase, where many flights cost more than $350 plus fees and taxes in January.

"Delta and everybody cuts their fares to Kennedy because of Sun Country, while fares to LaGuardia and Newark [N.J.] are high," said Minneapolis-based travel expert Terry Trippler. "Now if Sun Country pulls out of Kennedy, we're seeing fares [to Kennedy] go up."

JACKIE CROSBY