Allegiant has added 5 new domestic routes that are not operated by any other airline

The latest extension to Allegiant Air.

The Las Vegas-based airline submitted plans over the weekend to launch five new domestic routes, as shown by Cirium Shigeed. (Allegiant announced these routes in late May, but it wasn’t really submitted on the global airline schedule until this weekend.)

The new route starts later this summer and connects to the following airports:

• Starting August 29: Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) and South Bend International Airport (SBN) in South Bend, Indiana
• Starting September 4: McGee Tyson Airport (TYS) and Memphis International Airport (MEM) near Knoxville, Tennessee
• Starting October 2: Gulf Coast International Airport (GUF) on the Gulf Coast, Alabama and Appleton International Airport (ATW) in Appleton, Wisconsin
• Starting October 3: GUF and Des Moines International Airport (DSM); TYS and Key West International Airport (EYW) in Key West, Florida

As you can see, these routes are far from the typical new flights that major U.S. airlines like to launch. Allegiant’s unique ultra-low cost peer-to-peer business model means that the airline is trying to connect secondary and tertiary cities with uninterrupted flights to popular resort centers.

In this case, the airline is greatly increasing its services for popular beaches in Alabama and Florida and through Smoky Mountains in Knoxville.

In fact, the airline has already had considerable influence among many key gateways that are getting more services. Allegiant, for example, is the only operator of Alabama Gulf Coast International Airport (GUF). The airline will soon offer eight destinations from GUF, quickly turning the airport into an alternative fast development.

Meanwhile, the airline has operating bases in Appleton, Des Moines, Fort Lauderdale and Knoxville, which means all of these cities are already well served by Allegiant. This should also make Allegiant easier to sell and create demand for new flights, as the operator already has the foundation of flyers in these existing markets.

Speaking of demand generation, the airline comes with some very attractive entry fares. TYS-MEM service starts at $39, while flights between TYS and EYW start at $49. All other routes start at $59.

Interestingly, the extension of this route includes a rare loyalty route, a route that has not been flying for more than a decade. Cirium Shige shows that Allegiant’s 342-mile Tys-Mem flight will be the first two-hour service that the two cities flew through AIR Southern Airways Express in May 2015. Prior to that, Northwest Airlines (and Delta Airlines’ Postmerger) operated from its Memphis hub for many years.

In fact, according to the Cirium schedule, this will be the first Nasness channel in Allegiant. Without this flight, travelers will need to drive on Interstate 40 for nearly six hours to reach between the two cities.

But the real question is how many people are actually driving this drive today, and how many are willing to fly uninterruptedly. Last year, only more than 10 passengers were willing to make a connection trip between Knoxville and Memphis every day, but when uninterrupted flights were offered a decade ago, that number was only more than 20 passengers a day.

So it’s interesting to see how all of these new markets allegorical fares are priced, especially on the first route inside its sanitation.

Related readings: