One of the new Allegiant Hawaii routes has been cancelled before it even got started. Friday, the Las Vegas based carrier announced that planned service between Monterey and Honolulu has been called off. The weekly service was due to commence next month. This is a disappointment in terms of Hawaii travel deals.
Bookings did not materialize
Allegiant’s Jessica Wheeler said “unfortunately we didn’t see the bookings we anticipated.” That doesn’t come as a surprise to us, as Monterey and neighboring Santa Cruz are geographically isolated with a relatively limited community of Hawaii bound travelers. In addition, 90 minutes away in San Jose is a plethora of presently inexpensive Hawaii flights to all the islands.
Not a surprising change
We’ve been expecting changes in the Allegiant Hawaii route plans and suspect this won’t be the last shift to occur. The carrier is smart and nimble which will allow them to quickly bring their Hawaii plans into alignment with market opportunities and demand. We hope to see more new Allegiant Hawaii routes including flights to the other islands. Their current services and those planned are primarily to Honolulu. Savvy Hawaii travelers frequently choose the neighbor islands as their destination of choice, and island hopping to get to them has become too costly to be practical.
Allegiant Hawaii service is new paradigm
In addition to featuring their newly acquired 757 aircraft, Hawaii represents a different travel model for Allegiant. The Hawaii service may attract a distinct type of customer when compared with the carrier’s mainland services. Other routes largely rely on packaged travel including hotel and other purchases by customers who are not brand loyal frequent flyers. Hawaii visitors, however, are typically more familiar with the destination, may be repeat visitors, and are more independent when it comes to buying airfare separately from accommodations and activities.
It will take some experience for Allegiant to make sense of Hawaii and have it be a winning proposition. With their savoir faire, I have no doubt that they will be as successful in Hawaii as on the mainland. That’s good for visitors, Hawaii and Allegiant.
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Monterey did seem like an odd location to fly from with SJC being relatively close by. And the Carmelites are probably not exactly the target audience for Allegiant anyway.
Ay idea how the currently operating Allegiant routes to the Islands are working out for them?
Hi Oliver,
Based on what Allegiant just did with Monterey, I’d say that if it wasn’t looking pretty good on the other Hawaii routes, they would have axed them already. We wish them well and we need all the air lift we can get.
Aloha.
Jeff
So disappointed! Monterey is in my backyard…
Thanks for your comments.
Two things I can say with certainty. The airlines serving Hawaii read Beat of Hawaii and, your comments are most valuable. Please keep them coming.
Mahalo nui loa.
Why dont any of the carriers see the benefit of a BUR-ITO route? Burbank is so much easier to get in and out of – and it would be a lot like the old Aloha route of KOA-orange county….
Wish the CEO would call me and ask me!! LOL
I know, right? the issue lies in the type of aircraft the carriers are flying. Allegiant’s 757s could not make it in/out of Burbank. Even SWA’s (or Alaska’s) 737-800’s would have trouble getting out of Burbank fully loaded. Really, the only airplane suitable for BUR and SNA is the 737-700… which neither Alaska nor Southwest have with the ETOPS certification (to fly over-water). United and Delta have 737-700s, but the profit margins are a lot slimmer on the -700 compared to the -800.
Allegiant should look into Long Beach as an alternative to LAX for SoCal residents. Closer to Newport/Laguna/Irvine money, closer to the Mouse, and it’s a JetBlue hub… ACTUALLY, since Hawaiian is partnering with JetBlue out of JFK, they should fly into LGB as well and feed even MORE JetBlue connections…
really, why aren’t the CEOs calling us?!
I sort of disagree with the article. Almost everyone I know here in Ca has or borrows time shares to stay on the islands. Packages are cheaper to fly, but often mean empty hotel rooms because they divert to the timeshares or whole house rentals for their stay.