19 new seasonal routes focus on Florida and Tennessee
Allegiant Air announced 19 new seasonal routes Tuesday as the budget carrier rolls out more of its summer schedule.
Allegiant’s bases at Destin, Florida, and Nashville, Tennessee, were the biggest beneficiaries of the latest expansion. In Florida, the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport will get seven new routes, while Nashville gets six. (Scroll down for full list of new routes)
Among the other cities landing new Allegiant routes are Los Angeles; Pittsburgh; Savannah, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; and Knoxville Tennessee.
All 19 of the new routes are seasonal and each will feature two flights per week. Such schedules are common at Allegiant, which operates under what’s known as “ultra low-cost” business model. Allegiant, like other ultra low-cost airlines, offers low base fares but charges extra for nearly everything beyond boarding the plane.
Schedules also tend to operate differently at these types of airlines, which also include Frontier and Spirit in the United States. While some routes may have daily flights, many operate with just two or three flights week. The less-frequent schedules allow these carriers to try nonstop service on routes that have light or unproven demand.
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One thing that had set Allegiant apart over the years was its focus on connecting small and medium markets to popular leisure destinations with nonstop flights. While that’s still a main focus for the company, Allegiant has diversified in recent years. Bigger markets like Pittsburgh, Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, and New Orleans now sit on Allegiant’s route map alongside its traditional smaller cities like Minot, North Dakota, Plattsburgh, New York, and Bangor, Maine.
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The latest schedule expansion announced on Tuesday continues Allegiant’s push into larger markets, with routes like Cleveland-Nashville; Pittsburgh-Knoxville, Tennessee; and Los Angeles-Las Vegas being added.
The update also continues another recent Allegiant trend in which the company has begun to develop leisure markets like New Orleans and Nashville, expanding its previous strategy of focusing mostly on “surf and sun” destinations in Florida, Arizona and Las Vegas.
Just last month, Allegiant added one strikingly different new destination to its route map, saying it would begin its first-ever Alaska flights later this year.
Scroll down to see the schedule details on the 19 new routes Allegiant will announce Tuesday.
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Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Des Moines, Iowa: Two weekly flights begin May 16; seasonal.
Huntington, West Virginia: Two weekly flights begin June 6; seasonal.
Little Rock, Arkansas: Two weekly flights begin May 17; seasonal.
Rockford, Illinois: Two weekly flights begin June 5; seasonal.
Shreveport, Louisiana: Two weekly flights begin May 17; seasonal.
Toledo, Ohio: Two weekly flights begin June 7; seasonal.
Wichita, Kansas: Two weekly flights begin June 5; seasonal.
Nashville, Tennessee
Allentown/Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania: Two weekly flights begin May 17; seasonal.
Bentonville/Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport: Two weekly flights begin June 6; seasonal.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Two weekly flights begin May 17; seasonal.
Cleveland: Two weekly flights begin May 16; seasonal.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Two weekly flights begin June 6; seasonal.
Orlando/Sanford, Florida: Two weekly flights begin May 17; seasonal.
Los Angeles
Bozeman, Montana: Two weekly flights begin June 5; seasonal.
Las Vegas: Two weekly flights begin June 5; seasonal.
Savannah, Georgia
Albany, New York; Two weekly flights begin June 6; seasonal.
Providence, Rhode Island: Two weekly flights begin June 6; seasonal.
Knoxville, Tennessee
Pittsburgh: Two weekly flights begin May 17; seasonal.
Charleston, South Carolina
Columbus/Rickenbacker, Ohio: Two weekly flights begin June 6; seasonal.
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