CLEVELAND, Ohio – Allegiant Air, which offers cheap flights to popular vacation destinations, will pull out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport next year.
One of several leisure-oriented airlines operating at Hopkins, Allegiant never seemed to gain traction with Northeast Ohio travelers the way other low-cost carriers did, including Spirit and Frontier.
Allegiant entered the Cleveland market in early 2017, relocating from the Akron-Canton Airport. It was one of several carriers that set up shop in Cleveland after United Airlines closed its hub at Hopkins, ushering in a new era of airline competition.
Allegiant currently makes up about 3% of passenger traffic at Hopkins.
All U.S. airlines have been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought air traffic to a near standstill in March 2020. Air traffic has gradually returned, both in Cleveland and nationwide, with leisure travelers making up the bulk of passengers.
Allegiant, with its low fares and non-daily flights to Florida and elsewhere, has always focused on the leisure market.
It currently flies nonstop to seven destinations from Cleveland, including five in Florida: Orlando-Sanford, Punta Gorda, Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Jacksonville, plus Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah-Hilton Head, Georgia.
Hilarie Grey, managing director of corporate communications for Allegiant, said the carrier would exit at the end of the year, although the airline’s website late Friday was still selling tickets into 2022.
Grey did not attribute the carrier’s decision to pull out of Cleveland to the pandemic, but rather cited the airport’s cost structure as the reason for Allegiant’s decision.
“Unfortunately with the airport’s construction projects and major expansion, the cost structure has become prohibitive to our operation – our business model hinges upon our ability to keep fares low for our customers. That is the hallmark of our service,” Grey said in an email.
She did not immediately respond…