Allegiant Air, the Las Vegas-based discount air carrier that is the seventh-busiest airline operating at Harry Reid International Airport, has eliminated 61 routes from its system.
“While it is accurate that Allegiant has discontinued 61 routes, it’s important to note that these changes occurred over approximately a one-year period and are consistent with our longstanding business model,” an Allegiant representative said in an emailed statement Wednesday.
Allegiant routinely withdraws from markets quickly when ticket sales don’t perform as well as executives expected but recent headlines about Allegiant suggest recent withdrawals were unexpected.
“Allegiant’s network is intentionally flexible, and we consider all of our routes to be seasonal,” the representative said. “We routinely evaluate demand, operational requirements, and market conditions to determine where we can best serve our customers. As a result, routes may be added, paused, resumed or discontinued over time.”
Of the three most recent route eliminations from Las Vegas, one, to Grand Forks, North Dakota, was a seasonal shift that will return and another was a route to Mesa, Arizona, to shuttle aircraft for deployment from there. Only a route to and from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was eliminated.
“It’s also important to view these route adjustments in the context of our broader network growth,” the Allegiant representative said. “Since July 2025, Allegiant has launched 63 new routes and begun service at eight new airports. These changes reflect our commitment to understanding when and where our passengers want to fly and aligning our network accordingly.
“Route optimization is a normal part of our business, allowing us to focus our resources on markets where we see the strongest customer demand while maintaining the flexibility that has been a hallmark of Allegiant’s model.”
In some cases, the airline, which has flown more than 560,000 passengers to and from Las Vegas in the first four months of 2026, has eliminated operations at one location, but restarted them at another nearby airport.
In January, Allegiant pulled out of Los Angeles International Airport because the airport imposed new per-passenger fees to pay for new capital projects that made flying there too expensive for the company’s loyal value-seeking customers.
Allegiant now serves Los Angeles from nearby Hollywood Burbank Airport instead.
Allegiant also has ended flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minnesota, but in May acquired Sun Country Airlines, based in Minneapolis, for $1.5 billion. While Allegiant works toward changes that will put the company and Sun Country on one operating certificate, the airlines continue to operate separately and Allegiant moves its passengers to Sun Country flights that continue to operate.
Many of the flights publicized as eliminated are seasonal operations that will return later in the year, the Allegiant representative said.
Allegiant has shown a strong financial picture in recent months.
In Allegiant’s first-quarter earnings report issued in late April, the company reported net income of $42.5 million, $2.30 a share, on revenue of $732.4 million for the quarter that ended March 31. That compared with net income of $32.1 million, $1.73 a share, on revenue of $699.1 million for the same period a year earlier.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
