Allegiant flights at Vienna down 35% so far in 2017

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

VIENNA

Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport was once Allegiant Air’s fastest-growing service area, but so far this year the airport has seen a 35 percent drop in flights from the airline over last year.

A main reason for the drop from 144 flights made from January to May 2016 to 93 during the same period this year is the loss of the Punta Gorda, Fla., flights, which were put on an extended hiatus with no date of return scheduled.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas-based Allegiant announced 28 new routes and service from three new cities: Gulfport, Miss.; Norfolk, Va.; and Milwaukee, Wis.

Four of the new services are to Punta Gorda from Flint, Mich.; Milwaukee; Rochester, N.Y.; and Newburgh, N.Y.

“We definitely would like to see additional destinations, more frequency of those destinations and additional passengers operate out of this airport,” said Dan Dickten, director of aviation at the airport in Vienna Township.

He added: “We are very fortunate to have an ultralow-cost carrier such as Allegiant operating at this airport.”

Allegiant came to the Youngstown airport in 2006 with service to Sanford/Orlando, Fla. In 2011, Myrtle Beach, S.C., and St. Petersburg, Fla., flights were added. In 2013, the local airport received its fourth Allegiant flight to Punta Gorda.

Dickten noted that from 2009 to 2014, the Youngstown airport was Allegiant’s fastest-growing service area. For several years, Youngstown was the only local airport offering Allegiant flights. Today, Allegiant has flights at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and Pittsburgh International Airport. Allegiant had flights out of Akron-Canton Airport but stopped service there when the airline brought service to Cleveland.

Allegiant made the announcement to leave Akron after Spirit Airlines, another low-cost carrier, announced it would start flights there. Spirit also has flights at Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Frontier, another low-cost carrier, also offers flights out of Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

“That’s a lot of competition,” Dickten said. “They are trying to defend their territory.”

Flights to Punta Gorda out of Youngstown were put on hiatus in August 2016.

“We are constantly evaluating both our existing and potential service in all of our cities, including Youngstown,” said Krysta Levy of Allegiant Media Relations. “Allegiant customers can visit three great vacation destinations from Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport ... and our flight schedules allow for a quick long weekend, or a longer vacation. We will continue to explore new opportunities for our Youngstown travelers.”

Last year, for the first time since 2008, the airport saw a decline in the amount of year-over-year passengers.

The airport’s number of passengers for Allegiant has declined every month this year. The total number of passengers so far this year is 26,610, down 39 percent from the 43,870 passengers who flew from January to May last year.

Bob Mann, an aviation analyst based in Port Washington, N.Y., said secondary airports across the U.S. are in a similar situation as the local airport.

“Ultimately, at the edges, markets compete with each other,” Mann said. “It’s the airport with the greatest number of flights that gets the lion’s share of the business. It makes it very difficult for secondary airports who are in close proximity [to major airports].”

Despite the downturn, Dicken remained upbeat, noting, “... hundreds of communities that do not have Allegiant service would kill for what we have at Youngstown.”