Allegiant Air considering additional Springs flights

Allegiant Air is studying expanding its Colorado Springs routes next year to include flights to Oakland and San Diego in California. But the Las Vegas-based carrier says expansion is made more difficult because the Colorado Springs Airport is among the most expensive it serves.

 The discount carrier selected the Springs in 2002 as its first destination to prove it could profitably operate flights between small cities with little air service and resorts by offering vacation packages that include hotels, rental cars, tours, cruises and entertainment. Allegiant has grown rapidly since then and now offers flights from 64 other small and midsized cities to 10 resort destinations,.  In September, it added twice-weekly flights from the Springs to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and Long Beach, Calif.

 Allegiant President Andrew Levy said the new flights are “doing well for new service, but are not where we want them to be or think they will be. They are on a normal trajectory of new service. They are doing about as well as we anticipated that they would be.” He said the carrier recently reduced its schedule of flights between Colorado Springs and Las Vegas because the company added a weekly flight in October between Pueblo and Las Vegas to handle Pueblo passengers who previously had traveled on its flights from the Springs.

 “Colorado Springs is one of the more expensive airports we serve,” Levy said. “Part of the reason that we went to Pueblo is that we can afford to sell seats for less and still make a profit.”

But, he added, Allegiant is not thinking of leaving the Springs.

 “Colorado Springs has been a good market for us and we believe it will continue to be,” he said. “Pueblo is not an alternative to Colorado Springs for us. If we left Colorado Springs and went to Pueblo, I doubt our customers would come with us.”

 Allegiant pays about $6 per departing passenger in Colorado Springs, compared with 75 cents in Pueblo and $1 in Fort Collins. The carrier pays a higher rate than other airlines in the Springs because it has not signed a lease for ticket counters, passenger gates and other facilities.

 Brian Davis, Allegiant’s director of airport planning, said the carrier has discussed costs with local airport officials and believes that the Springs airport operates efficiently. He said airport officials have worked with the carrier to keep its costs as low as possible in the Springs.

 Part of the reason Colorado Springs is among the most expensive Allegiant serves is because many of the other cities  have little or no other airline service and offer few amenities for passengers, such as concessions, loading bridges and free wireless Internet service, said Gisela Shanahan, the airport’s assistant director for finance and administration. The airport’s master lease with all airlines does not allow officials to charge Allegiant any less than it charges other carriers for the same facilities and services, she said.

 “Our costs per passenger have been right at the national average for 2007, 2008 and 2009,” Shanahan said. “We work to run the airport as efficiently as possible and some of the airlines that serve Colorado Springs have used us as an example of an efficiently run airport.”

 Even with the higher costs, Levy believes Allegiant has opportunities to expand its Colorado Springs service, including Oakland and San Diego, and also Reno, Nev., and perhaps Orlando, Fla., using new longer-range Boeing 757 aircraft the carrier plans to acquire. He said Allegiant also may consider flights to the Mexican resorts of Cancún and Cabo San Lucas if it eventually adds service to those cities, though the carrier’s first priority in adding new resort destinations is Hawaii — an expansion that has been delayed until next year.

 United Airlines provides nonstop service between the Springs and San Francisco International Airport, across San Francisco Bay from Oakland International Airport, but service from the Springs to Orlando and San Diego hasn’t been available since 1997.

 “San Diego and Oakland are opportunities for us to grow and definitely are on the radar for Colorado Springs, but we will watch to see if these new routes (Phoenix-Mesa and Long Beach) develop into solid performers,” Levy said. “They probably would be in 2012 or beyond.”