The past few days have seen large numbers of new US routes introduced, with Allegiant alone adding 31. Part of this was from Austin, which has become a base, while Washington Dulles has joined its network. We check it out.
Allegiant has started 31 routes
Allegiant inaugurated 31 routes between November 15th and 22nd, analyzing Cirium schedules indicates. With nine new routes, Austin has welcomed the most, followed by Phoenix-Mesa with six and Palm Springs with four. Nashville, Orange County, and Provo also stand out.
Washington Dulles has joined Allegiant's network, which we explore later in the article. It follows Melbourne, which began on November 11th with service from Pittsburgh (not included in the following map as it launched before the period examined). Since then, Melbourne has welcomed new routes from Nashville and Concord, near Charlotte.
Notice in the map below how many routes look similar lengths, mainly falling in the one to two-hour sweet spot for ULCCs. However, three long routes began: Indianapolis to Palm Springs (1,716 miles, 3,014km), Nashville to Palm Springs (1,693mi, 2,761km), and Flint to Mesa (1,650 miles, 2,725km). The longest of these has a block time of four hours and 13 minutes.
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Nine new routes from Austin
Austin is the country's third fastest-growing airport, with almost 1.6 million additional seats for sale this winter and 18% more than previously. One reason for this rise is Allegiant, which this week turned the Texas capital into a base with three A320s.
Allegiant began Austin in October 2013 with a route from – where else? – Las Vegas, using the B757-200. The ULCC's growth at Austin has been relatively swift, with 374,000 seats this year, Cirium reveals, the most of any year. Part of the reason is nine additional routes, as detailed below, pushing its Austin network to 23 destinations.
- Amarillo: twice-weekly
- Louisville: twice-weekly
- Orange County: twice-weekly
- Provo: twice-weekly
- Punta Gorda: twice-weekly
- Springfield (MO): twice-weekly
- Sioux Falls: twice-weekly
- Tulsa: twice-weekly
- West Palm Beach: twice-weekly
Only two of those nine routes have head-to-head competition: Orange County once-daily with Southwest and Tulsa once-daily with American. Despite Allegiant's rise at Austin, it is only the airport's eighth-largest airline this year, with a 2% share of seats.
Welcome, Washington Dulles!
Allegiant currently has only one route from Dulles: twice-weekly to Jacksonville. A second (Sarasota) begins on December 18th. Neither of Allegiant's Dulles services overlaps with its offering from Baltimore or, for that matter, Hagerstown (MD), some 62 miles from Dulles.
Dulles is the latest of the country's top-30 busiest airports (based on 2021 data) to join Allegiant's network. It adds to Baltimore, Boston, Chicago Midway, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newark, Phoenix Sky Harbor, and San Diego.
Will you be flying any of these routes? Let us know in the comments.