Sun Country, which flies to destinations all around the Caribbean, sees Cuba as a natural landing

Sun Country Airlines wants to fly Minnesotans to the long-forbidden island of Cuba.

The Mendota Heights-based airlines thrives off Midwesterners flocking to warm-weather destinations throughout Mexico and the Caribbean in the winter. Cuba is a hole in its route map.

The company submitted its route bids — including two weekly, year-round nonstop flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Havana — to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) by the deadline this week. Every major U.S. airline and several budget and regional carriers also applied for authority to operate commercial flights between the two nations for the first time in five decades.

The government is expected to make a decision on the bids by summer. If Sun Country wins one or more, it hopes to begin service by next winter or early spring.

Sun Country began experimenting with Cuban charters nearly three years ago by offering two or three daily shuttles from Miami to various Cuban airports. It ended those partnerships late last year because they were unprofitable.

"We've had our planes there. We know how to work with the Cuban government," said Zarir Erani, president and CEO of Sun Country. "Sun Country does feel comfortable flying into that region."

The airline, which has increasingly emphasized its vacation packages to passengers, has resort partners in Mexico that also have accommodations in Cuba, Erani said.

The company also requested a Minneapolis-Havana route with a stopover in Fort Myers, Fla., and seasonal nonstops from Minneapolis to Santa Clara and Varadero — smaller Cuban cities.

But the DOT hasn't said how it will dole out the route allotments or indicated if it will loosen current travel restrictions, which prevent U.S. citizens from going to Cuba just for tourism.

These are crucial questions, Erani said, since the answers will impact how much demand there will be for the routes and what barriers travelers may face in taking a flight.

"We just don't have those details," Erani said. "We saw an opportunity to bid on something to help the people of the Midwest region have access to Cuba."

Most of the airlines applied to fly Cuban routes originating from Florida port cities, where the Cuban-American population is most heavily concentrated, or from each carrier's fortress hubs.

For Sun Country, that's Minneapolis-St. Paul. For Delta Air Lines — the largest carrier at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport — that's its hometown of Atlanta plus Orlando, Miami and New York.

Sun Country is the only airline bidding for a nonstop between Cuba and Minneapolis-St. Paul, which is the northernmost starting point proposed by any of the airlines.

"We are thinking of this as an additional destination, with the added intrigue of it so long being this forbidden island. I think there will be a high desire for Midwesterners to get exposed to that area," Erani said. "It might lose that mystique, but we don't know how long that will take."

At the end of 2014, President Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba after a half-century of economic sanctions against the communist country.

Several U.S. airlines have operated in Cuba, including Sun Country, but only as chartered flights, which is a different financial and consumer model.

Then last month, the two countries signed an agreement that paved the way for commercial flights between the U.S. and Cuba.

U.S. airlines had just two weeks to put together route bids.

It's unclear if the government will require the airlines to use what is given them within a certain time period or risk losing it, but airline analyst Mike Boyd, president of Colorado-based Boyd Group International, said the airlines had "to get their foot in the door down there" whether or not the country's tourism infrastructure is set up to support hoards of Americans.

"There's nothing in Cuba," Boyd said. "It will be adventure travelers for a while. But, at some point — maybe in five to 10 years — this could be the boon area, so they have to be in play."

The aviation agreement gives U.S. carriers 110 commercial routes, but a dogfight is shaping up over Havana, which is the most sought-after Cuban destination and has only 20 available slots.

Airline executives and analysts say it's impossible to predict how the DOT will pick the winners and losers. Boyd said politics will play a role — and that could be to Sun Country's advantage.

"My feeling is that you'll probably see a small airline like Frontier or Sun Country win some," he said, "It's an underdog. It has the right pedigree."

Boyd said charter companies, and possibly even airlines that offer vacation planning services, are well-positioned because of the dearth of hotels, food and transportation options in Cuba.

"Setting up a business down there is a nightmare," Boyd said, "I think these charter companies could be looking down the throat of a bonanza for business because they know how things work."

Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767