Feb 10 2009
New “Deal” Airline Coming To Hawaii?
I’ve been hearing rumors for several months now that Allegiant Air is planning to begin service to Hawaii. We’ve also learned that they have been around the state scoping out potential business opportunities. I’m excited about the possibility, and find their approach very interesting. Here’s why.
An Airline where “air” is not their priority.
Allegiant, based in Las Vegas, has a business model that’s very different than most carriers. While Allegiant sells unbeatably priced air-only, they specialize in packaged vacations sold in conjunction with their air service. In that way, they are not completely reliant on filling seats the way traditional airlines are in order to make money. Allegiant’s focus is on bringing travelers from smaller cities to vacation areas that currently include Las Vegas, Phoenix and Florida.
How Allegiant makes money.
Allegiant derives profit by selling hotel rooms, activities, and car rentals with their air transportation. It is the sum of those items, together with nickel and diming on seats and baggage, and an on-board purchase menu that includes souvenirs, that helps them to be profitable.
Hawaii appears to be a natural, albeit obviously risky, expansion opportunity for Allegiant. I say risky because it will mean expensive new aircraft and flight crews.
Potential planes and routes.
It is believed that Allegiant Air would acquire Boeing 757-200 aircraft in the event they move forward to serve the Hawaii market. They might well begin with Las Vegas to Honolulu service, but could ultimately excel in the niche of bringing visitors to Oahu and Maui from places that presently have little or no direct service to Hawaii.
Allegiant Air stock closed at over $36 a share last Friday, while Hawaiian, Continental and United were at about $4, $14 and $9, respectively.
If you’ve flown Allegiant Air before, what was your experience?
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I’ve flown Allegiant many times and absolutely love their service. I fly them out of Bellingham WA to Las Vegas. Great crew, planes and prices – what more do you need?
They’re also having their “Guess our new destination” contest on their Web site. Thanks to you, I”m guessing Hawaii!
Mark
My family flew Allegiant Air from Bellingham, WA to Las Vegas for a wedding in September 08. Although we live in Vancouver, B.C. it was much cheaper for us to drive 40 mins from home and fly from the US. Even with the “nickel and dime” for the luggage, seat selection, etc. the service Allegiant provided was excellent. Check in at the Airport was fast and friendly and the flights left on time. I sat next to an off duty Allegiant employee who was very pleasant and was thrilled that he was working at Allegiant. He had a car at the airport in Las Vegas and actually offered to drive us to our hotel. That says something for sure!
We would definitely fly Allegiant to Hawaii !!
We have flown Allegiant many times. Effecient, no frills, and low priced.
Des Moines to Orlando is $109 one way. Des Moines to Las Vegas $ 69 each way. without stops.
By the way, according to the Allegiant Air Web site, that “new destination” will have air service from the following:
“Allegiant will soon announce a sunny new destination with low-cost, nonstop flights from the following cities:
Bellingham, Wash.
Grand Junction, Colo.
Monterey, Calif.
Billings, Mont.
McAllen, Tex.
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Des Moines, Iowa
Medford, Ore.
Springfield. Mo.
Fargo, N.D.
Missoula, Mont.
Wichita, Kan.”
Not to be picky, but I don’t quite understand what the closing sentence about the stock prices of the various airlines is meant to tell me. You’re not implying that company A is more successful/profitable/a better investment/… than company B if A’s stockprice is higher than B’s, right?
Thanks to everyone for the great comments.
I’m glad I wasn’t alone in finding the Allegiant an interesting and potentially very valuable company for our Hawaii travel market.
As for why I mentioned the stock price, I just found it to be an interesting corollary.
Airline prices are so cheap right now, how will they compete?
What do you know about Pacific Wings airline for inter-island flights? We booked on travelocity and that was the carrier.
Thanks!
I don’t consider Pacific Wings an inter-island carrier in the sense of Go!, Hawaiian and Mokulele. I haven’t flown them in years, but did once between Molokai and Honolulu. Cessna or something like that as I recall. If anyone knows more, please speak up. There website says very little.
Jeff