Flying high with Sunwing founder Colin Hunter

By Anthony Bonaparte, October 3rd, 2012

In just 10 years, the Sunwing brand has grown from a fledgling Canadian tour operator into this country's largest leisure company, comprised of airlines, a chain of travel agencies, a hotel management company and more.
Founded in September, 2002, the first flight of Sunwing Airlines took off three years later with a fleet comprised of just two aircraft. Today, slightly more than 29 aircraft fly out of more than 30 cities across the country. Bundled under the Sunwing Travel Group banner, the organization has for the past several years been listed by Profit Magazine as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies.
Founder Colin Hunter could not be more proud of the family business he built from the ground up. And although the torch was passed to his eldest son, Stephen, who took over as Sunwing's president and CEO in January, 2010, 73-year-old Hunter is still happy to make the rounds to talk about what makes Sunwing stand out.
Hunter has enjoyed a long career in the travel industry, beginning at age 20 soon after he moved to the U.K. from his native India. After a 10-year stint with British Airways, he moved to Canada for the best of reasons. “I met an interesting girl who I ended up marrying,” he says with a smile, during an interview at The Suburban’s.
In Canada, he started as a reservation clerk for a vacation company, rose through the ranks, and eventually established his own tour operation in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He later took over Toronto-based Adventure Tours and in 1988, was part of the group that launched the discount charter airline Canada 3000.
In 1995, Hunter sold his holdings to take advantage of the freedom he could easily afford at 55, but idling around was not in his blood. “By the end of the ‘90s my wife told me I should go back to work, so I did.”
He jumped back in to the fray in 2000, purchasing a little firm that had $13 million in gross sales called Red Seal Tours. Two years later Sunwing was formed and today, the Sunwing Travel Group boast annual sales of over $1.3 billion.
Although there were doubters, Hunter says he knew they could make it work if they kept firm control over as many aspects of the business as possible — including the fleet.
“I wanted us to be able to control the quality on the aircraft because when we used other aircraft, there wasn’t any control of the actual product delivered to the passengers on board,” he explains.
“If you can’t control the quality, then you can’t deliver a service that’s satisfactory to the consumers and to yourself.”
Hunter also wanted to outdo the competition by offering the little extras that they did not. “We were going to give them Champagne and a hot meal and that started differentiating our product from the rest.”
Sunwing entered Quebec a year later than originally planned, but ever since the company set down stakes in 2006, seat sales have grown from roughly 27,000 in the first year to over 400,000 today. And they did so by taking a risk, not only establishing regular flights to the south from Montreal and Quebec City, but from regional airports in Bagotville, Sept Iles and Val d'Or.
“We were the pioneers,” says Sam Char, Sunwing’s executive director. “Never did anybody try to bring the sun to the door of the people in the regions.”
The company also brought jobs to the regions. Eleven of its aircraft already operate out of the Quebec area, and this winter Sunwing will be adding more than 170 airline and tour operation jobs in the province. As well, Char is quick to add that Quebec suppliers, like catering companies and coffee suppliers have also benefited. “We like to work with our communities and two things we’re proud of is, one, we created jobs in a province that needs them, and second, we brought another choice to the Quebec consumer,” says Char.
During the coming winter months, Sunwing will again concentrate its efforts on the Caribbean. Already the number one wholesaler of seats and hotel rooms in Cuba, other popular destinations include the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Mexico. New this season for Montrealers will be flights to Huatulco on Mexico’s Pacific coast, regular flights to both St. Martens and Jamaica, and a convenient dayliner service to Punta Cana and Cancun. “They leave at 9 a.m. and come back at 7 p.m. — daily,” says Hunter.
Sunwing also operates a second brand. Signature Vacation was a relatively small tour company before Sunwing took it over a few years ago and since then, the brand has literally taken flight, selling popular packages to a variety of hotels, including the Riu chain, which Hunter calls “one of the best, affordable, luxury hotel chains in the world.”
anthony@thesuburban.com