Wilmington International Airport. StarNews file photo.

Q. Does the airport board think that Allegiant Air will reinstate service to Florida? If not, do they think any other airline will offer direct service to Orlando in the near future?

A. “At this time we are not aware of Allegiant reinstating service to Orlando in the near future,” said Jon Rosborough, director of Wilmington International Airport.

Rosborough said the two-day-a-week service “was well received by our community and we had high load factors,” meaning the number of people in seats.

Allegiant made money, “but did not achieve their revenue target thresholds, causing them to reevaluate the service and eventually pull out of ILM,” Rosborough said.

He added that Allegiant “is a low-cost, niche air carrier that does not see themselves as commercial airline moving passengers from one point to another.”

“They see themselves as a travel company that sells vacations and vacation packages” offering low fares and including hotel rooms, car rentals and theme park tickets, Rosborough said.

“They do not make their money on low fares, they make their money on the total vacation package. Many of our customers only purchased tickets not vacation packages and that is why Allegiant did not achieve their revenue targets out of ILM,” he said.

It’s possible that the Florida flights will resume in the future, Rosborough said.

“We say in contact with Allegiant and hope they will serve our market again in the future. We have also been in contact with other air carriers about providing non-stop service to Orlando, but there is nothing concrete at this time,” he said.

Rosborough added that both Delta and US Airways, which fly out of ILM, “provide one-stop service to Orlando at reasonable prices.”

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Date posted: September 24, 2013

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