Florida is the gift that keeps on giving during the winter months, especially for ultra-low-cost carriers. Allegiant is dipping into the endless pit of demand once again, adding eight new routes to destinations across the state.
Savannah (SAV) sees the most new service with three new routes followed by Fort Lauderdale (FLL) which gets two. All other destinations will see a single new route as part of these additions. All flights are scheduled to begin in November.
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (CVG) to Melbourne, FL (MLB)
- Flint (FNT) to Destin/Fort Walton Beach (VPS)
- Grand Rapids (GRR) to Palm Beach (PBI)
- Portsmouth, ME (PSM) to Sarasota/Bradenton (SRQ)
- Savannah (SAV) to St. Petersburg (PIE)
- Savannah (SAV) to Punta Gorda (PGD)
- Savannah (SAV) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
- New York-Stewart (SWF) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
As with most of the routes operated by the airline, these flights will all operate on a less than daily basis. These flights are currently available for booking at allegiantair.com.
Allegiant’s Route Strategy
Allegiant is unique in the U.S. airline industry for a couple of reasons. First, the airline has bases scattered across the country, sometimes with only a couple of planes. Their pilots return to base each evening allowing them to spend the night at home and to keep Allegiant from having to pay for overnight accommodations.
The airline also operates from secondary, lower cost airports in order to keep costs down. The airline operates large bases at Phoenix-Mesa (AZA) instead of Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX) and Orlando Sanford (SFB) instead of Orlando International (MCO).
Allegiant also isn’t shy about cutting routes that underperform the carrier’s expectations. The airline is completely eliminating its Austin base this winter which will lead to drastic cuts. It will be interesting to see how many of these routes survive the winter and which ones are eliminated.
Summary
Allegiant is adding eight new routes to Florida this winter, a state that seemingly sees endless demand during colder months. The flights will operate less than daily utilizing Airbus A320 family aircraft. It will be interesting to see the performance on these routes, though Florida seems to have endless demand during the winter.
Thanks to IshrionA for initially flagging this.
(Photo courtesy Allegiant Air)
