Allegiant Air adding flights to South from East Coast network

Allegiant Air is using its ability to react quickly to competitive moves to build new routes on the East Coast in a strategy that eventually will allow it to expand its Las Vegas market.

The Las Vegas-based carrier, which surprised its employees earlier this week when it announced that it was scrapping its routes between Honolulu and Las Vegas and Los Angeles in August, is announcing Thursday that it is adding two new cities to its route map — Flint, Mich., and Dayton, Ohio — and adding new flights to the South from its East Coast network.

The company said it is ending its Hawaii service because it makes more economic sense to retire its fleet of twin-engine Boeing 757 jets than undertake the heavy maintenance that would be required to keep those jets flying.

It's an unusual undertaking for an airline, but Allegiant has separated itself from other carriers by undertaking unconventional strategies.

The company is demonstrating that again by making a relatively quick decision to serve Flint and Dayton, a move the company is trying after Southwest Airlines disclosed that it was scaling back service to those cities.

Southwest inherited Flint and Dayton when Air Tran Airways was acquired in a merger.

When Flint and Dayton land on Allegiant's route map, the airline will develop routes to Florida destinations, but not Las Vegas.

Lukas Johnson, vice president of network and pricing for Allegiant, said the company won't have to cut any existing routes but was able to make some schedule shifts to add service to those cities and expand routes in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pa.; Richmond, Va.; and Belleville, Ill.

The new schedules will begin in February and April.

Southern markets to gain flights include Punta Gorda, West Palm Beach, Clearwater and Orlando, Fla.; and New Orleans. The airline is discounting fares to introduce the routes with the best deal being a $29 fare from Richmond to Orlando.

Allegiant offers low base fares, but charges customers ancillary fees for extras like baggage, carry-on luggage, snacks and seat selection.

"We're able to do this because we're very flexible and nimble," Johnson said. "We can often reallocate resources within a week."

Allegiant frequently moves quickly when a route underperforms and years ago canceled a route before its first flight because advanced ticket sales were low.

When some of the East Coast changes occur next year, Allegiant will offer half of its flights on Airbus jets. The airline is in the midst of a program to upgrade to the newer, more fuel-efficient Airbus A320 and A319 jets. Most flights through Las Vegas are on older MD-80 jets. When Hawaii service ends, two Boeing 757s that haven't come to the end of their maintenance cycles will be used on some Las Vegas routes.

Once Allegiant begins to take delivery of more Airbus jets, more of them will be used in Las Vegas and longer flights may be considered because A320s have a greater range and are less expensive to operate than the MD-80s.

"Once they get to Las Vegas, you'll see some longer routes here because these planes are more efficient to fly, which is how we keep our costs and ticket prices low," Johnson said.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.