Carrier to offer flights to Las Vegas

By NANCY KIMBALL/Daily Inter Lake

Allegiant Air brought in a dose of high-gloss fanfare to announce the start of year-round airline service between Kalispell and Las Vegas in October.

A statuesque Vegas showgirl glittering in blue sequins, feather boa and towering plume headdress provided the glitz for Allegiant's gathering in the Glacier Park International Airport terminal Wednesday.

Director of Sales John Fenyes announced that the Flathead will become Allegiant's fifth market in Montana to offer direct Las Vegas flights, joining Billings, Great Falls, Missoula and, as of last week, Bozeman.

"It makes it easy for this community to fly to Las Vegas and connect to other markets," Fenyes said.

"Not only will your residents be able to fly into the city that never sleeps," he said, borrowing from a 1953 Chicago movie, "but we'll be bringing people up to Glacier Park Airport."

Beginning Oct. 17, the no-frills air carrier will begin twice-a-week direct flights on Mondays and Fridays. They will be flying 150-seat MD 80s, making them some of the biggest planes operating at Glacier Park International.

Flights will leave Kalispell at 8:15 p.m. and arrive in Las Vegas at 9:20 p.m., and depart Las Vegas at 4:15 p.m. and arrive in Kalispell at 7:35 p.m.

And they will be cheap. For now, really cheap.

An introductory $89 one-way rate is available until Sept. 10 on travel through Jan. 31, 2009. After Sept. 10, the fare goes up to $109 each way. Hotel packages are available for airfare and four nights at Vegas Club for $250.

Allegiant expects to draw travelers from the Flathead and southern Alberta and British Columbia, something that Airport Director Cindi Martin said already is happening.

"We went to Allegiant in October 2006 with a business case, saying here's our existing market and here's how it fits your model," Martin said.

Allegiant focuses on the leisure traveler looking for warm-weather escapes and the ease of traveling through smaller airports, not business travelers undaunted by the complexities of major hubs.

"We already serve a lot of [locals] traveling to Las Vegas, and those coming from lower British Columbia with our existing carriers," Martin said.

In July alone, Glacier Park International logged 26,773 paying customers, those who didn't use reward programs or who were not airline personnel traveling for free. That brought the total for 2008 to 106,508.

Early on in the talks, Glacier Park International quizzed Allegiant on how many travelers had been driving from the Flathead and Southern Canada to catch the Las Vegas flights out of Missoula since they were instituted in March 2005. They were coy about giving out proprietary numbers, she said.

But as she and her staff heard more and more people were making that drive, they continued to press for a deal.

Late this spring, Allegiant finally decided to open the Kalispell-Las Vegas route.

"They had a lot of due diligence to conduct," Martin said.

With airlines operating on slim staffs and tight budgets - Glacier Park International instituted a staff hiring freeze this year and trimmed costs through reusing and refurbishing everything possible - this is not a move to bring jobs to the local economy. Allegiant will contract with currently operating companies to staff its ground crews.

"We're pleased to add this to the service that we have now," said Jim Trout, chairman of the Flathead Municipal Airport Authority. He projected another route to Phoenix will be added before long. "They're a profitable, capable airline."

Profitability comes, in large part, through carrying fully loaded planes.

Fenyes said Allegiant's "load factor" is 85 to 90 percent when all its markets are factored together.

"We're profitable in every market," Fenyes added.

It may be due to how Allegiant was branded when it was founded in 1997.

"When we started this up, we thought about what we could do to differentiate ourselves from other airlines," he said. So Allegiant went into smaller airports where there are few or no offerings of direct flights to major leisure destinations. Colorado Springs was its first location, Fenyes said. Today, the airline flies into the secondary markets of Tampa/St. Petersburg, Orlando, and Phoenix.

And officials decided to brand Allegiant as low-cost. That called for a new take on fees and expenses.

"We were the first to unbundle our product," Fenyes said, explaining how the carrier splits out extra services from its basic fare. "If you want the $89 fare, you can do that. If you want to reserve your seat, you can do that but you will pay extra for it."

Carry on your luggage for free or pay for checked bags, bring your own soft drinks and snacks or buy them from the flight attendant.

Allegiant Air, headquartered in Las Vegas, is a subsidiary of Allegiant Travel Co.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com