"A perfect city:" Why Allegiant Air took a bet on Jacksonville

[ProjectMaximus]

^What were the other two ultra low cost carriers?

Spirit Airlines twice. There's a decent chance I'll also get to try Frontier if they continue to service UST-PHL all year.

[FSBA]

Well, the route has been cancelled.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2017/02/allegiant_cancels_jacksonville.html

I'm not shocked. Took that route to see some family in the New Orleans area and the return flight was maybe twenty people counting the crew.

[Ocklawaha]

FWIW:

To give you an idea of how old Allegiant's fleet is I checked the manufacturer plate (just inside the main door) and this MD-80 was made in October of 1989. So while a 27 year old plane isnt that big of a deal, its the cycles and maintenance that matters.

I cant tell when this plate had its C check done.

As I said earlier, MD-8x are pretty hardy planes and can last a long time if maintained properly.

Okay, I know it sounds boastful, but it is funny as hell to me... When I wrote a plan for the City of Sanford back in 1985 to become a transportation hub, "We could capture the charter flights currently going into OIA as well as some commuter or regional carriers..." Shuttles would connect the airport and Amtrak/Auto-train with the historic downtown etc... At first they nearly laughed me out of City Hall. Today, I'm the one laughing.

The shuttle is operating too, free from the train station.