Allegiant announces 10 new routes

Budget carrier Allegiant Air announced 10 new routes across 14 different airports.

Allegiant’s bases in Los Angeles and Knoxville, Tennessee, were the big winners, each landing three new nonstop routes. Other destinations receiving multiple new routes include the Florida airports serving Jacksonville and St. Petersburg.

Allegiant said it would be the only carrier offering nonstop service on all 10 of the new routes announced Monday.

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“This expansion caters to passengers and communities we feel have been overlooked by other carriers,” Drew Wells, Allegiant’s chief revenue officer, said in a statement. “Allegiant’s unique business model, connecting small-to-medium sized cities to vacation destinations, creates accessible travel options not otherwise available in what we believe are underserved markets.”

Also included in Allegiant’s expansion are new flights from two of the more unusual secondary airports in the airline’s network.

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Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) will get twice-weekly nonstop flights to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). A number of airlines already fly nonstop between Chicago and Los Angeles, but Allegiant will be the only one to fly the route from RFD.

While RFD bears Chicago’s name in its official name, the airport in the city of Rockford, Illinois, sits about 85 miles west of Chicago’s downtown Loop neighborhood. The airport added the Chicago name to its title in the early 2000s in an attempt to position itself as an alternate airport to Chicago’s much busier — and much closer — O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and Midway International Airport (MDW). Allegiant is the only airline with service at the Rockford airport, where it offers either seasonal or year-round service to eight other destinations.

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The other secondary airport getting new Allegiant service is MidAmerica St. Louis Airport (BLV), which is located 25 miles from downtown St. Louis near Belleville, Illinois. The airport opened to commercial flights in the late 1990s amid concerns about overcrowding at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), the metro area’s primary airport. However, a new runway at STL coupled with declining flights — American dropped the hub it inherited from TWA there in the mid-2000s — left that airport operating far below its capacity. Like at RFD, Allegiant is the only airline with regularly scheduled passenger service at BLV.

The full schedule details for all of Allegiant’s 10 new routes are below.

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

• Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD): Service begins June 12 with two flights per week.
• Laredo International Airport (LRD) in Texas: Service begins June 12 with two flights per week. (Seasonal)
• Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP) in South Dakota: Service begins June 14 with two flights per week. (Seasonal)

Related: Full review of the Allegiant World Mastercard