I’ve written here before about how AirTran has really beefed up its competition with Allegiant of late, and that’s one of the biggest reasons for Allegiant moving some operations from Orlando Sanford to Orlando International. Well, AirTran isn’t stopping and announced yesterday that it would enter Grand Rapids with service to Baltimore (two daily flights) and Orlando (one daily flight).
Grand Rapids is one of the markets that will have its Allegiant service moved from Sanford to MCO, though it’s not because of AirTran – Delta has a daily Compass E-175 flying on the route. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how long that service will last now with that extra capacity. I would imagine that Delta’s nonstop to DCA (only a few times a week on a Pinnacle CRJ) might be a bit at risk as well.
It’s certainly been interesting to watch these two carriers duke it out. As always, we’ll just have to watch…
I’m really curious to see how this plays out. You knew Allegiant couldn’t last forever under the radar. Eventually somebody else would start to take a stand against them.
This is great for the cities that will start to see the competition. I wonder though if Allegiant’s entire travel package service will win out. When you go to Florida you are typically taking a vacation that fits well with a package deal, like Disneyworld. Allegiant certainly is known for being a one stop shop for all of that.
I have to give the edge to Airtran on this one. Allegiant’s business model is to fly to cities too small to maintain daily service. If Airtran can maintain anything close to daily service, Allegiant will not be able to respond. Not with MD-80′s.
Allegiant works in cities where the top story on the nightly news for a month is Allegiant. FWA, GFK, PBG, OWB, YNG… Those are Allegiant markets. Anyone who can name 3 of 5 of those cities wins my respect.
FWA: Fort Wayne
YNG: Youngstown
GFK: Grand Forks (aka my “home”)
Allegiant has been in the news here for months!
Allegiant is one of the most profitable airlines out there. I think they have a great business model. In the long run Airtran will not be able to compete with Allegiant, in terms of profitability. They are two birds of a different feather. The worst case scenario is that Airtran forces Allegiant to reconsider their strategy in several markets, probably to both carriers detriment.