Allegiant Expands Service in Jacksonville

[Steve]

Well this seems like a good thing:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Nonstop flight service to three new cities will be coming to Jacksonville International Airport.

Jacksonville Aviation Authority Board Chairman Ray Alfred will announce the new air service at a news conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Officials did not say which three cities would be serviced, but they are three that are not currently served by JAX.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/local/jacksonville/3-new-cities-to-have-nonstop-flights-from-jax

[dp8541]

Fingers crossed for Vegas, LA and Denver

[dp8541]

more likely, mobile, Newark and Shreveport

[ProjectMaximus]

Fingers crossed for Vegas, LA and Denver

Well Denver and Vegas (seasonal) are already served by Southwest. I'm not sure which three "new" cities it could be...LA is a good guess. Memphis, Birmingham and San Juan all come to mind as well, mainly because all of the above used to be available at some point in the past decade. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

[ProjectMaximus]

more likely, mobile, Newark and Shreveport

Yeah, Pensacola also crossed my mind. Silver Airways briefly launched service there from Jax.

[fsquid]

Fingers crossed for Vegas, LA and Denver

Well Denver and Vegas (seasonal) are already served by Southwest. I'm not sure which three "new" cities it could be...LA is a good guess. Memphis, Birmingham and San Juan all come to mind as well, mainly because all of the above used to be available at some point in the past decade. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Memphis isn't a hub anymore for Delta, so doubtful

[spuwho]

Fingers crossed for Vegas, LA and Denver

Well Denver and Vegas (seasonal) are already served by Southwest. I'm not sure which three "new" cities it could be...LA is a good guess. Memphis, Birmingham and San Juan all come to mind as well, mainly because all of the above used to be available at some point in the past decade. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Memphis isn't a hub anymore for Delta, so doubtful

Memphis to JAX is an old Northwest Airlines route. I used to fly that one. It was run by Pinnacle Air and used Bombadiers.

Silver to Pensacola was actually a busy flight right up to the last day according to the people who actually used it. Still baffled on that one.

Jax to Denver was a Frontier deal, but with them moving to St Augustine, i doubt it.

My wife used to do Jet Blue direct to San Juan for work.

Its probably some new Allegiant destinations.

If Allegiant does JAX to BLV or MCI, I would be jumping on that. Those are old ExpressJet routes that did well before they got out of commercial air.

[blizz01]

Well, they recently announced direct service to Toronto on Air Canada - perhaps Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary?  (wishful thinking).

Guess I should stop thinking internationally, but man, London..............

[ProjectMaximus]

Jax to Denver was a Frontier deal, but with them moving to St Augustine, i doubt it.

Its probably some new Allegiant destinations.

If Allegiant does JAX to BLV or MCI, I would be jumping on that. Those are old ExpressJet routes that did well before they got out of commercial air.

Yeah I was thinking with three new destinations it's probably one of the expanding LCCs. Southwest is still going once daily to/from Denver. I would be happy with directs to STL and KC, but I wasn't sure of the precedence and/or business ties. Did not know it was former ExpressJet.

[Gators312]

Its probably some new Allegiant destinations.

If Allegiant does JAX to BLV or MCI, I would be jumping on that. Those are old ExpressJet routes that did well before they got out of commercial air.

Allegiant (G4) has big announcements scheduled for tomorrow according to their facebook page. 

Maybe IND-JAX gets restarted.  (One of WN's cuts from recession time)   

Glad to see the additional service, just disappointed it will be on G4. 

[blizz01]

My company has a footprint in the Kansas City area & it'd be great to have a direct option.  I have a friend/co-worker who is considering relocating to North Florida, in addition to a potential beach rental property.  That said, he's actually being influenced farther South towards Palm Coast so that he has the option of flying family in & out of MCO (direct).

[ProjectMaximus]

Its probably some new Allegiant destinations.

If Allegiant does JAX to BLV or MCI, I would be jumping on that. Those are old ExpressJet routes that did well before they got out of commercial air.

Allegiant has big announcements scheduled for tomorrow according to their facebook page. 

Maybe IND-JAX gets restarted.  (One of WN's cuts from recession time)

LOL well there it is. Good sleuthing. That puts a damper on things as I'm still not sold on Allegiant as a passenger needing to get somewhere in a timely manner. But we'll see. This makes it sound even more like BLV and MCI will be options.

[Gators312]

Its probably some new Allegiant destinations.

If Allegiant does JAX to BLV or MCI, I would be jumping on that. Those are old ExpressJet routes that did well before they got out of commercial air.

Allegiant has big announcements scheduled for tomorrow according to their facebook page. 

Maybe IND-JAX gets restarted.  (One of WN's cuts from recession time)

LOL well there it is. Good sleuthing. That puts a damper on things as I'm still not sold on Allegiant as a passenger needing to get somewhere in a timely manner. But we'll see. This makes it sound even more like BLV and MCI will be options.

I agree about it being anti-climactic...G4 has some issues even though they are wildly profitable.   Their customer service during irrops or mx issues gives me pause as well as some of the rumblings regarding their safety culture.   

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/allegiant-air-flight-runs-low-on-fuel-over-closed-airport-makes-emergency/2238936 

[fsujax]

Jacksonville to Seattle or Anchorage, I need more direct flights home to visit.

[spuwho]

Its probably some new Allegiant destinations.

If Allegiant does JAX to BLV or MCI, I would be jumping on that. Those are old ExpressJet routes that did well before they got out of commercial air.

Allegiant has big announcements scheduled for tomorrow according to their facebook page. 

Maybe IND-JAX gets restarted.  (One of WN's cuts from recession time)

LOL well there it is. Good sleuthing. That puts a damper on things as I'm still not sold on Allegiant as a passenger needing to get somewhere in a timely manner. But we'll see. This makes it sound even more like BLV and MCI will be options.

I agree about it being anti-climactic...G4 has some issues even though they are wildly profitable.   Their customer service during irrops or mx issues gives me pause as well as some of the rumblings regarding their safety culture.   

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/allegiant-air-flight-runs-low-on-fuel-over-closed-airport-makes-emergency/2238936

ExpressJet and Allegiant are not related. ExpressJet used to run those routes years ago.

Allegiant had some maintenance issues with some older MD-80's they acquired. Unfortunately the issues bubbled up into the pilots union because pilots started exercising their rights to maintain flight safety by delaying flights to get things fixed.

One pilot was recently fired from Allegiant because he reported smoke smell in the cockpit and requested an emergency return, which of course he got.

Allegiant maintenance found no smell or any issues at all and filed a grievance against the pilot. The board ruled against him and he was terminated.

But the pilots finally won the day last summer when Allegiant started getting planes fixed when the summer vacation season ended.

Their flight record with the newer Airbus models is pretty good, but some of the really old MD-80's have issues.

They really need to buy up the old MD-88/717 models that Southwest is unloading from Airtran. Way more modern in the flight deck and more reliable.

The fueling problem was traced to ground crew who thought it was a different flight. None the less, the pilot is supposed to put the refuel in his flight computer so to gauge his take off weight. The fact that they waited until the fuel warning came on means they werent paying attention either. That is the swiss cheese effect that can cause problems.

I already posted elsewhere about Allegiant landing in Tulsa when they were supposed to land in Springfield, MO. The problem was the pilots didnt tell the crew or the passengers they had diverted. The Tulsa airport was closed.

The Tampa press hasnt been kind to Allegiant due to the number of aborted take offs this summer.

Lets hope that whoever it is, that the new routes are quality and stick.