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Allegiant Tries Something New in Fort Lauderdale

23 comments on Allegiant Tries Something New in Fort Lauderdale
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Allegiant’s strategy has always focused on finding markets that others wouldn’t serve. Whether it’s because the route was too small for anyone to care or it was due to Allegiant using alternate airports, the airline has long shied away from direct competition. Now, however, it seems to be using a different tactic in Fort Lauderdale. It is facing competition on all four of the new routes it just recently announced, and I find that to be a headscratcher.

To understand how different this is, we have to first understand Allegiant’s business. So, I dug into Cirium schedule data for 2026 to pull out some information that would help illustrate this more clearly. First, Allegiant hates competition.

Allegiant Routes Shown by Number of Competitors

FY 2026 Schedule Data via Cirium

This shows that 85 percent of all of Allegiant’s routes have no direct competition, though that may be because Allegiant uses Sanford while other airlines choose Orlando’s main airport. Still, that is a differentiator, and I’ll talk about that more later.

You’re probably wondering about those markets with significant competition though, right? Well, that one market with 4 competitors is Fort Lauderdale to Indianapolis. This was flown by Southwest and Spirit. Now, JetBlue is entering and Frontier added some peak season service when it saw Spirit dying. This is a similar dynamic to several of the other more competitive markets. In most cases, Allegiant is skimming off the top while others fight it out. But the point is, this doesn’t happen often.

One reason for this is because the markets tend to be pretty small. See what I mean:

Allegiant Routes Shown by Total PDEW

FY 2025 DOT OD Data via Cirium

More than 80 percent of Allegiant’s markets have less than 100 passengers flying daily each way (PDEW). There are very few big markets, with only Nashville – Fort Lauderdale and Austin – Las Vegas having more than 500 PDEW.

To be clear, I’m looking specifically at airport-to-airport here. So St Pete to… wherever… doesn’t include Tampa demand. That’s by design since St Pete can feel like a different market. Same with places like Punta Gorda or, to a lesser extent, Sanford in Orlando. Allegiant isn’t afraid of flying in broader markets against competition, but it doesn’t like going head-to-head at an airport. And it doesn’t like big markets.

So it may be a surprise to see that Allegiant has decided to add four relatively large markets from Fort Lauderdale:

  • Boston 3x weekly (1,192 PDEW) against Delta and JetBlue
  • Kansas City 2x weekly (231 PDEW) against Southwest
  • Omaha 2x weekly (62 PDEW) against Southwest in Jan-Apr only
  • Pittsburgh 3x weekly (407 PDEW) against JetBlue and Southwest

Now, Fort Lauderdale has always looked a little different since Allegiant has its base there at a primary airport that others serve as well. But even with that, in 2026, out of the 43 markets served, 27 had no competition and 29 had fewer than 100 PDEW.

So what exactly is Allegiant thinking here? Boston looks like a pure spill-carrier model. This is Spirit and Frontier all over again. It’s a huge market with a lot of flights, but for those who are really cheap, Allegiant will throw in 3x weekly to make it cheaper… if you can fly on those days they fly at those times. This is not Allegiant’s wheelhouse.

The Pittsburgh flight is also a strange one since JetBlue has just recently started it. Spirit was there and it flew to Latrobe nearby as well until late 2025. So maybe there’s this idea that so much low-cost service came out of the region that it can make it work.

Kansas City is a market that Spirit did serve, and JetBlue has not moved in. That one I can understand a little more, since Allegiant will probably be able to undercut Southwest pretty easily on its few flights. And Omaha, well, that’s just a much smaller market than I would have guessed. Spirit was never in there, and it probably is not high on JetBlue’s list either.

I suppose this is just Allegiant trying to stake its claim in FLL, but I just have trouble seeing this as the best way to do it. Maybe Boston is just a test to see if this kind of market can work. But if I were Allegiant, I wouldn’t want to be getting deeper into the spill model that has already taken one airline and put another on the ropes.

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Brett Avatar
Brett

23 responses to “Allegiant Tries Something New in Fort Lauderdale”

  1. JT8D Avatar
    JT8D

    Allegiant has shot itself in the foot badly by buying Sun Country. Allegiant had mostly its own markets – a huge advantage and one of the main reasons it has not suffered as badly as other ULCCs.

    None of Sun Country’s market segments have that kind of moat. Its MSP scheduled business exists at the say-so of Delta, which can end it at any time. The Amazon business – well, Amazon is in charge, no doubt. And the charter business has zero barriers to entry.

    Allegiant tried one dumb expansion out of its niche with the hotel business, which cost it about $500 million before all was said and done. This is even worse.

    Allegiant did need to expand outside its traditional niche. There were better ways to do that than messing with hotels and buying Sun Country.

    It will also very likely end up as an ALPA carrier, and ALPA will push for a standard ALPA contract – and those have terms and conditions that do not work with the Allegiant model (like forcing the airline to offer commutable lines – e.g. offer a minimum number of four day trips).

    Just a bad idea all around.

    Reply
    1. Eric R Avatar
      Eric R

      Sun Country’s route map was not the main reason why Allegiant bought Sun Country though.

      Also, let’s not forget there are a lot of differences between Allegiant’s business model and other ULCC’s. Unique routes is a factor but far from the only one and many of those “unique” routes are not unique, but alternatives to other major routes.

      Reply
    2. Spuwho Avatar
      Spuwho

      Allegiant pilots are repped by the Teamsters.

      There is a vocal group of pilots called Allegiant-ALPA that have been pushing for a union change.

      A meeting of Allegiant-ALPA surged in attendance after the SC merger announcement.

      Reply
    3. 1990 Avatar
      1990

      Allegiant buyin and buryin Sun Country is all benefit to Delta at MSP.

      Reply
  2. SEAN Avatar
    SEAN

    I don’t get it either. FLL maybe the secondary airport in the Miami metro area, but it doesn’t act like one. If this is Allegiant stratagy, they should have gone into PBI.

    More importantly, are you OK? I’m aware of the explosive MMA tank in Garden Grove & the evacuations occurring around there.

    Reply
    1. Brett Avatar
      Brett

      SEAN – Thanks for asking, but no issues here. Fortunately, I’m in the part of Long Beach that’s about as far as possible from there, and prevailing winds would have taken it away from me anyway. Sounds like they’ve prevented an explosion as well, so while it could still cause issues for people in the immediate area, the worst case is off the table.

      Reply
  3. Wany Avatar
    Wany

    My ignorant self is more surprised that Allegiant has over 500 routes. Gcmap them all out is probably going to look pretty impressive. I guess if you are only flying each of them twice weekly, you need the number of routes to keep the planes in the air.
    Now that Spirit is gone, I wonder if Allegiant will move from PIT to LBE in the future.

    Reply
    1. JT8D Avatar
      JT8D

      If PIT is working for Allegiant, why would the airline trade it for LBE?

      Reply
    2. Bevvy Avatar
      Bevvy

      Is 500 routes more than Southwest

      Reply
      1. O'Hare Is My Second Home Avatar
        O’Hare Is My Second Home

        No. Allegiant does not do as many routes as one of the Big Four. I’m sick and tired of all of the avgeeks overinflating the size and importance of ULCCs, the bottom feeders of the airline industry. We’d all be better off if they didn’t exist, and if you complain about that assertion in terms of consumers, maybe the poor shouldn’t fly.

        Reply
        1. JT8D Avatar
          JT8D

          “Consumer choice is a terrible thing” – bold position. Batshit crazy, but bold.

          Reply
          1. O'Hare Is My Second Home Avatar
            O’Hare Is My Second Home

            “Kill kill kill kill kill the poor”- Dead Kennedys. Bold position and totally valid.

            Reply
        2. Spuwho Avatar
          Spuwho

          I am not poor and I fly Allegiant when it makes sense. In some cases it doesn’t. And I have flown them since their early wild west days.

          One also needs to know how to work Allegiant ‘s schedule to ones benefit.

          I think if one knows it benefits and demerits and can make it work to ones good, it does just fine.

          But I do not fly them exclusively.

          I have never flown Spirit. Seen too many fist fights at check in or at the gate.

          I have flown Frontier and it was enough. No plans to fly them ever again.

          But I don’t chase miles, I look for value. In the past 6 months I have flown SWA, UA, AA and DL.

          Reply
        3. Darin Avatar
          Darin

          I’m tired of keeping more money in my pocket instead of just giving it to airlines too! Competition is unnecessary and we should absolutely pay higher prices!! As long as that price point is just slightly less than what I can pay, we should be all good!!!

          Oh and randomly, I’m absolutely a better human than [all] poor people by the fact that I’m not poor. I mean, am I right ;-)

          You may be rich in monetary currency, but seem poor in what matters most.

          Reply
  4. emac Avatar
    emac

    All direct bookings too. Are they paying for Google ads, ads on Expedia to pull people to allegiant.com to book that BOS-FLL roundtrip?

    Reply
  5. Matt D Avatar
    Matt D

    Allegiant doesn’t always get it right. Remember what about 10, 15 or so years ago and they picked up a handful of 757’s? They ran them to Hawaii including out of FAT.

    Yeah that was scotched in a hot second. I don’t remember how long it lasted, but I know it wasn’t long at all.

    And not to beat a dead horse, but Tulare and adjoining Visalia and the immediate nearby surrounding areas are about a third of a million people. And quickly rising.

    Now I know that a lot of them, particularly the tiny towns that most of you have probably never heard of, like Tipton or Goshen, probably don’t even generate more than maybe five flyers a year, but the area overall, you think maybe finally VIS will have its day and come back online with some actual service here in the near future? I’d like to think that maybe we’d be a prime target for Allegiant and/or Breeze. I know we had service pre Deregulation and some EAS up to about 2015, and that all were pretty much a bust.

    But Fresno was also badly underserved until just about a decade or less ago. And now is doing pretty well.

    What are the Cranky odds of that? Or do you think that the drive-off factor will remain too much of an obstacle to overcome. Central Valley folk tends to be pretty stubborn and are very resistant to changing old habits. Or maybe nobody here ever travels anywhere. Who knows.

    But if United seems to think it can make money on flights between BFL-LAX, you never know.

    Reply
    1. Spuwho Avatar
      Spuwho

      Allegiant finally cancelled the Hawaii route because 1 of the 2 757’s was having maintenance issues and causing cancellations. And to give you an idea of just how bad those 757’s were overall, they ended up getting sold to New Pacific and their MRO scrapped one of them on the spot and the other got $ of repair but the airline went under shortly after. I think that remaining 757 they had fixed went back to Mojave.

      Reply
      1. Yo Avatar
        Yo

        New Pacific’s planes were all old AA and US planes. They bought 4, I know one never entered into service. I looked up Allegiant’s 757’s they had 4 757’s N902NV, N903NV, N905NV, N906NV. None of them went to New Pacific, they all started at Brittiania.

        Reply
        1. Yo Avatar
          Yo

          Make that 6 757s that Allegiant had, I missed two! The other two N901NV and N904NV were from Britannia also.

          Reply
    2. Brett Avatar
      Brett

      Matt D – I wouldn’t put the odds very high. Allegiant has really been shrinking Las Vegas and it has focused more on the east. I just don’t see much interest in doing more in the west.

      Reply
  6. Eric C Avatar
    Eric C

    Allegiant doesn’t sell connecting itineraries, where both Spirit and jetBlue do or did. Is not having bag sorting and all the associated customer handling enough of a cost savings to give them a meaningful cost advantage?

    Reply
    1. JT8D Avatar
      JT8D

      Cost advantages come more from things like no crew overnights due to Ryanair-type operational model (crews and aircraft return to base every night – no crew overnight expense and every aircraft sees MX every night, which, if you’re not incompetent, ought to increase reliability). Plus the bases they use are cheap on a CPE basis.

      But yes, connections are a massive PITA. Ryanair has only relatively late in its development experimented in a small way with connections. The vast majority of its passengers remain on point-to-point. This is an airline with ~650 aircraft, yet still avoiding the vast majority of connections. From which you can safely conclude that it’s a big deal. It’s not just higher expenses, it’s lower revenue, because passengers prefer nonstops and connections are generally subject to more competition. If you can possibly run a nonstop-only operation, it’s massively simpler.

      Airlines are already incredibly complex. The greater the complexity, the higher the expense and the more there is to break.

      Reply
  7. Paper Boarding Pass Avatar
    Paper Boarding Pass

    Give credit to Allegiant for FLL; It’s still considered the “second airport” of South Florida compared to MIA and far less expensive. I’m sure Allegiant took a hard look at Palm Beach (PBI) as an alternative, but passed due to The Donald constantly suing the airport. And, a few overlaps are inevitable, but a prime opportunity to irritate your competitors.

    The next Big Issue for Allegiant is the integration of Sun Country:
    – Does this mean greater frequency due to the ramp up in airframes?
    – Or, will G4 morph into another Frontier trying to spread its coverage across the nation?
    – Or, does it follow the Euro model of multiple crew bases, but the jets return home each evening shunning connections.

    I sure the senior leadership of Allegiant is currently staring at a map of North America plotting their next move.

    Reply

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