Big expansion: Allegiant targets NYC, Charlotte markets
Leisure carrier Allegiant will announce a major expansion today (Aug. 20), adding flights from the greater New York City area and bringing passenger service to a second Charlotte-area airport.
In all, Allegiant will add 18 routes and 10 cities, growing its route map to include a total of 99 U.S. destinations.
"We are pleased to bring more convenient, low-cost vacation options to more communities," Andrew Levy, Allegiant Travel Company president, says in a release.
Allegiant's 10 new cities included in today's announcement are: Clarksburg, W. Va.; Charlottesville, Va.; Concord, N.C.; Islip/Long Island MacArthur, N.Y.; Manhattan, Kan.; Newburgh/Stewart, N.Y.;
Portsmouth, N.H.; Oklahoma City; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Tulsa.
Some of those new destinations are all but certain to catch the attention of industry observers.
Of particular note will be Allegiant's creep into the greater New York City area. The leisure carrier won't fly to the city's three busiest airports, though it will add service to two airports that sit at the edges of the New York metro area: Islip/Long Island MacArthur and Newburgh/Stewart.
In its Tuesday announcement, Allegiant says its service at those airports will target "travelers in the New York City area" by "providing a low-cost travel alternative to the beaches of Southwest Florida."
"New Yorkers love a great deal," Jude Bricker, Allegiant's senior vice president of planning, says in a statement. "We think our low fares and special package rates on hotels and rental cars will appeal to travelers looking to spend less on their vacations."
Islip's Long Island MacArthur Airport is located about 50 miles from Midtown Manhattan and was Southwest's choice for its first flights to the greater New York City area back in 1999. Transit connections are fairly easy to access from MacArthur, which also has air service on US Airways Express (to Philadelphia) and PenAir (to Boston).
Newburgh/Stewart International is located about 70 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It's run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that also operates the LaGuardia, JFK and Newark Liberty airports. The Port Authority hopes to turn Stewart International into a reliever airport for the metro area, though Stewart's transit connections are not as easy to access as those at MacArthur. Stewart currently has service on three airlines: Delta Connection (to Detroit), JetBlue (to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando) and US Airways Express (to Philadelphia)
Elsewhere, Allegiant also seems likely to draw attention for adding two airports where it will be the only carrier offering regularly scheduled commercial service: North Carolina's Concord Regional Airport and New Hampshire's Portsmouth International Airport.
The addition of air service to the Concord airport stands out given its proximity to both downtown Charlotte and that city's existing major air hub at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The Concord airport is just about 15 miles from downtown Charlotte and less than 25 miles from the Charlotte airport, which is US Airways' busiest hub. Allegiant's addition of service there appears to be an attempt to position Concord as a secondary airport within the metro Charlotte area.
In New Hampshire, Allegiant's return is sure to be welcome news at Portsmouth International, which has struggled to hold on to its airline during the past 15 years. Allegiant itself flew from the airport last decade before pulling out in 2007. Other airlines that have come and gone at Portsmouth since 2000 include Skybus and a now-defunct modern incarnation of Pan Am. The airport is located on New Hampshire's coast, about 60 miles north of Boston Logan and about 55 miles south of Portland International Jetport — Maine's busiest airport.
Another departure from normal comes in Allegiant's new routes to Oklahoma City and Tulsa — both bigger airports than the ones Allegiant typically seeks to connect to its focus cities.
Allegiant's business model focuses almost exclusively on connecting those small and medium-sized cities to its focus airports — mostly warm-weather destinations that include airports in Florida, California and the desert Southwest.
Though Allegiant does fly to some mid-size markets, such cities as Austin, Des Moines and Greensboro, N.C.are outnumbered on the carrier's route map by smaller airports like those in Chattanooga, Grand Island, Neb., Plattsburgh, N.Y. and Provo, Utah.
Bricke acknowledged that some of the cities added in today's announcement are "larger than what we've historically been focused on," telling the Associated Press that Allegiant is trying to take advantage of service cuts in the east after the merger of AirTran and Southwest.
Southwest opted to drop 15 of AirTran's small and medium-sized markets instead of integrating them into its post-merger route map.
Scroll down for a full list of Allegiant's routes included in Tuesday's announcement:
Nonstop service to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA)
Fort Wayne, Ind.: Begins Oct. 30, 2013
Manhattan, Kan.: Begins Nov. 7, 2013
Nonstop service Orlando-Sanford International Airport (SFB)
Bismarck, N.D.: Begins Nov. 23, 2013
Clarksburg, W. Va.: Begins Nov. 14, 2013
Charlottesville, Va.: Begins Nov. 21, 2013
Concord, N.C.: Begins Dec. 20, 2013
Oklahoma City: Begins Nov. 14, 2013
Portsmouth, N.H.: Begins Oct. 25, 2013
Springfield, Ill.: Begins Nov. 22, 2013
St. Cloud, Minn.: Begins Dec. 18, 2013
Tulsa: Begins Oct. 25, 2013
Nonstop service to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE)
Elmira, N.Y.: Begins Nov. 1, 2013
Sioux Falls, S.D.: Begins Nov. 1, 2013
Columbus Rickenbacker, Ohio: Begins Nov. 23, 2013
Fargo, N.D.: Begins Nov. 23, 2013
Newburgh/Stewart, N.Y.: Begins Oct. 31, 2013
Syracuse, N.Y.: Begins Nov. 7, 2013
Nonstop service to Florida's Punta Gorda Airport (PGD)
Islip/Long Island, N.Y.: Begins Dec. 20, 2013