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BUSINESS
Allegiant's flights from Tri-State to begin April 30
HUNTINGTON -- On April 30, Tri-State Airport will begin Allegiant Air's first direct, low-fare flight to Myrtle Beach.
The match is a perfect fit, said Jim Purgerson, a member of the Tri-State Airport Authority and president of the Ashland Alliance. When he moved to Ashland from Louisiana, it didn't take long to learn that Myrtle Beach was the preferred vacation destination for many in his new community.
"A lot of people in Ashland call Myrtle Beach 'Ashland South,'" Purgerson said. "It will absolutely be a home run."
Myrtle Beach will be Allegiant's fourth destination from Tri-State Airport. It first came to the airport in 2006 with a direct, low-fare flight to Orlando, Fla. It followed in late 2007 with a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and then in early 2008 with a flight to St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay, Fla.
It's watched airport boardings climb ever since.
Airport Director Jerry Brienza said 141,000 passengers have flown from Tri-State Airport to Allegiant's Florida destinations. Tri-State saw an increase of 33 percent in its 2008 boardings, compared with 2007. Allegiant saw an increase of more than 140 percent in that time, Brienza said.
The airport's total boardings have been rising since 2007, after a slight drop in 2006 because of flight cutbacks from other Tri-State carriers. Tri-State Airport also offers Delta flights to Cincinnati, Ohio, and U.S. Airways flights to Charlotte, N.C.
"At a time when airlines are re-sizing, down-sizing -- whatever you want to call it -- it's amazing that Allegiant is announcing another service," Brienza said. "It's what the community has been hoping for. The people spoke, and the airline listened, and now we have a service you all have been asking for."
Service will begin with an introductory rate of $39 each way, for tickets purchased by March 28.
"Then they skyrocket to $59 each way," said John Fenyes, director of sales for Allegiant, a Las Vegas-based airline.
Flights will be on Thursdays and Sundays. They will leave Tri-State at 9:30 a.m., arriving in Myrtle Beach at 10:50 a.m. The return flight will leave Myrtle Beach at 1:10 p.m., arriving in Huntington at 2:30 p.m.
Allegiant will utilize 150-seat, MD-80 series jet aircraft on the route.
The airline has never offered flights to Myrtle Beach before. Tri-State will be the first airport with the service, and Allegiant is expected to announce today, March 4, its plan to offer the service from a second airport.
Along with the flights, Allegiant will offer hotel and rental car packages, which can be found on its Web site at www.allegianttravel.com.
Passengers of the Tri-State area have shown Allegiant tremendous support, Fenyes said. But because it offers low-fare flights, the airline is doing well at all of its 60-plus airports right now, he said.
It announced last month that it was the only major airline to report a profit for 2008, and it has the highest stock in the airline industry right now, Fenyes said.
"We're a low-cost carrier," he said. "The unemployment rate is over 7 percent, but that means that 92 percent of the public is still working, and they're looking for bargains."
Allegiant Air is one reason Mike Skeens sold his own airplane. He flies to Florida often and said, "I couldn't taxi my plane for what I'm flying down there for (with Allegiant)."
Skeens said he's tickled to death about the new Myrtle Beach service. Charleston's Yeager Airport temporarily offered a flight to Myrtle Beach, but no longer does.
"I own three condos and have a house in Myrtle Beach," said Skeens, chief executive officer of Huntington Testing and Technologies. "We've been going to Myrtle Beach since I was in college. That's where everybody in West Virginia goes. We call it the blue line. You just put your ink pen down and draw a line straight to Myrtle Beach."
He said when he's at his condo at the beach, he puts out a Marshall University flag so friends will know he's there. But it's amazing how many local Marshall fans he's met just because of that flag.
For Tyson Compton, Tuesday's airport announcement brings back memories, he said. As a child growing up in Louisa, Ky., Myrtle Beach was always the vacation spot of choice, said Compton, the new director of the Cabell Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau.
As the director of the CVB, he's glad that these flights go both ways. Hopefully, these low-fare flights can help Huntington attract visitors from Florida and Myrtle Beach -- particularly in the summer when folks might want to escape the heat, or in the fall to see the foliage here, Compton said.
"The fares are so inexpensive, why not come up here for a weekend," he said.
Allegiant as a whole is a great fit for Huntington, Skeens said.
"Their planes are full all the time," he said. "It's real good service, it really is. Now that they're going to Myrtle Beach, they'll get swamped, we hope."
