Allegiant Air starts a route to Myrtle Beach (no, not out of RFD)

6 comments March 3rd, 2009

Allegiant Air keeps growing.

Not long after announcing service to Los Angeles, it announces flights from Huntington, W.Va., to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

This is interesting on a number of levels:

• Allegiant has a history of starting mini-destinations - flying to them from one or a couple cities, rather than rolling them out as focus cities. Think Bellingham, Wash.; San Diego, Calif.; and San Francisco, Calif. Maybe this is one of those.
• At the same time, Allegiant has said publicly that Myrtle Beach could be a future focus city. Maybe they start slow, but look to ramp up at some point.
• Huntington, W.Va., was the city paired with Rockford in the ill-fated two-stop route to Myrtle Beach that Southern Skyways ran last year. Let’s see how it works now that fuel prices are normal (EDIT: Alert reader Sally corrected me. It was Charleston that got paired with Rockford, not Huntington. Oh how could I forget Charleston? It’s Chew is so wonderful!)
• Meanwhile, Allegian’s route map indicates Punta Gorda, Fla., is a focus city now, even though there are only two cities with service to there. Maybe they plan a ramp up there as well?
• Which brings me to the most interesting part. Allegiant is now serving the three focus cities of Direct Air (the other main carrier at Chicago Rockford International Airport) - both airlines fly to Orlando/Sanford, Fla. They now “share” three feeder airpors - Rockford; Allentown, Pa,; and Plattsburgh, N.Y. - but don’t compete at any of them (in Rockford, Allegiant has Sanford, Direct Air has Myrtle Beach and Punta Gorda). The closest they come to competing is in western Michigan - Allegiant serves Sanford out of Kalamazoo, while Direct Air does the same an hour up the road in Grand Rapids. Also interesting, Direct Air has moved into two former Allegiant cities - Springfield, Ill., and Worcester. Mass. How long can they play well together?
• Oh, and looking back at the story I referenced earlier - since when did Allegiant start flying military planes???

This could be one of the more interesting years in a while in the airline industry…