Only days after fellow budget carrier Spirit filed for bankruptcy, two other ‘ultra-low-cost’ carriers have announced dozens of new and revived routes and some new destinations.
Allegiant has the biggest basket, with 44 new or revived routes, with the first starting in February with low introductory fares. Three new airports are joining the network, Colorado Springs, Columbia, South Carolina and Gulf Shores in Alabama, next door to the Florida Panhandle. Each of the three is not that far from a larger airport with more mainline service, a strategy that has worked well in the past for Allegiant.
Frontier’s 16-route addition will launch in March, near the end of the winter season, and features four new routes from Austin, Texas, flying to Orlando, Cincinnati, Chicago and Phoenix. Other destinations getting more flights include Orlando and Tampa. Earlier this year, Frontier cut a number of Orlando flights because so many airlines had increased flights that fares were depressed. One unusual move for Frontier: a route from San Juan to Antigua and Barbuda, its only intra-Caribbean route.
