Arkansas’ only nonstop air service to Los Angeles, on low-cost carrier Allegiant Air, is scheduled to return to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport with twice-weekly flights, starting June 7.
“We’re excited to see LA [service] come back,” said airport director Kelly Johnson, who learned Friday that the flights would resume. “We got a lot of complaints when it went away.”
The Los Angeles flights will serve the airport on Mondays and Fridays, according to Allegiant website schedules. An Allegiant spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.
The airline suspended the Los Angeles service Nov. 11, when it lost gate space for flights at Los Angeles International Airport. Allegiant continued to operate flights out of Northwest Arkansas to Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida and to Las Vegas.
Johnson said the Los Angeles flight was Allegiant’s best route at the airport at Highfill, near Bentonville. “It was 90 to 95 percent full,” she said.
A comparison search on Friday for a June 7-10 roundtrip flight from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport to Los Angeles found nonstop tickets on Allegiant priced at $305.98 if bought by debit card, $313.98 by credit card.
Delta Airlines offered a flight on the same dates for $532.20, which included a $50 credit billed to the passenger’s credit card. The Delta flight connects through Memphis.
The return of Allegiant’s Los Angeles service is welcome news, said Philip Means of Bella Vista. His friend flies in monthly from Los Angeles and she has had to drive a couple of hoursto Springfield, Mo., or Tulsa to fly with low-cost carriers.
“That’s not a good situation,” Means said. “Allegiant’s Los Angeles flights coming back in June, that’s good news.”
Although low-cost carriers generally appeal to leisure travelers, Allegiant’s LA service also attracted business passengers, Johnson said.
Marsha Fuller, travel consultant at Destinations travel agency in Fayetteville, said when she worked in the travel department for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. until earlier this year, “we used that flight a lot at Wal-Mart. I’m sure J.B. Hunt and Tyson use that as well. You would sometimes see $250 round-trip flights,” compared with at least $500 flights with other airlines.
One downside was Allegiant’s twice-weekly schedule, she said. But she said business travelers often would fly one way on Allegiant, then return the next day on a regular commercial flight. “They would still save money. Most people don’t realize that a business traveler’s ticket, going out one day and coming back the next, can cost $1,000.”
Allegiant Air is the Northwest Arkansas airport’s only low-cost carrier, though airport officials have a $950,000 federal grant to try to entice a second one. The airport in 2011 was named the most-expensive to fly to or from among midsize U.S. airports by statistical expert Nate Silver of The New York Times.
Bill and Hillary ClintonNational Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock and Fort Smith Regional Airport offer connecting services to Los Angeles, but don’t have nonstop flights to that city.
Business, Pages 23 on 12/29/2012