Richard N. Velotta
VEGAS INC coverage
The skies over the South Pacific and the air routes between Hawaii and its ninth island, Las Vegas, will be filling up in the months ahead.
Allegiant Air’s announcement that it would run its recently acquired fleet of Boeing 757s between McCarran and Honolulu international airports is shaking up the market that has been dominated for years by Hawaiian Airlines.
There hasn’t been a lot of competition on the route since Aloha Airlines flew into Bankruptcy Court in March 2008.
And to think that once, long ago, America West Airlines, which dominated McCarran at the time, flew a Boeing 747 between Las Vegas and Honolulu.
But that was then and this is now.
Hawaiian has 19 round trips between Las Vegas and Honolulu a week, flying wide-bodied Boeing 767s and new Airbus A330 jets. Allegiant will start out with just three a week, but in a bid to snag some market share, the Las Vegas-based carrier decided to introduce the route with $174 one-way introductory base fares.
Even if you add $70 in baggage and carry-on fees, the $244 one-way fare matches the best Hawaiian currently has posted on its website.
Keep in mind these are fares for flights that run nonstop from Las Vegas to Honolulu. For travelers willing to make a stop and change planes, there are all kinds of options for getting to Honolulu.
American, United, Delta, US Airways and Alaska Airlines will take you there from Las Vegas via Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore.
Even though their ticket prices are considerably higher than Hawaiian’s or Allegiant’s, there are plenty of people wanting to go to the islands and will do so on carriers to which they are loyal because they can at least knock off the cost of baggage fees when they hold an airline’s loyalty club membership.
When Allegiant starts flying to Honolulu from Las Vegas on June 29 (a couple of days after McCarran’s Terminal 3 opens), it’s just the first phase of the company’s plans. Eventually, Allegiant could look at landing at Hilo or Kona on the Big Island, Kahului on Maui or Lihue on Kauai. It’s also considering other domestic airports from which to fly to Hawaii. So far, Las Vegas and Fresno, Calif., are the only mainland starting points.
Now, think of what happens if Southwest Airlines enters the picture.
The Dallas-based discount carrier has been making noise about flying to Hawaii ever since it announced that it would be acquiring Boeing 737-800 jets that have a larger capacity than most of the fleet it currently flies and have the range to make the run from the West.
McCarran would be a logical place for Southwest to inaugurate Hawaii service for several reasons.
Las Vegas is Southwest’s largest station west of the Mississippi, with nonstop flights to 54 destinations. That means there are ready-made connections to move passengers from almost anywhere on Southwest’s system to the islands with just one stop.
Southwest has a crew base in Las Vegas. That means the pilots and flight attendants making Hawaii runs could start their trips from here.
But realistically, the airline could just as easily launch Hawaii service from any of its West Coast destinations, which have a far larger customer base from which to draw. How many daily flights could Southwest fill from Southern California residents alone? Or from the Bay Area, where Southwest has a crew base in Oakland? Or even Phoenix, the No. 5 destination in the Southwest system, which also has a crew base?
Just last week, Southwest put its first 737-800 jets into service, and several more will be delivered in the months ahead. Southwest, which has acquired AirTran and is slowly converting its routes to the Southwest brand, has plenty of other destinations planned. Its looking at flying to Mexico and the Caribbean, currently AirTran’s domain, and in 2014, it will be able to fly to and from its Dallas Love Field home to any destination when the Wright Amendment is completely repealed.
Hawaii may be in the background for the airline now, but if executives want to go to the most southwestern point in the United States, it could really shake up a market that has been big for Las Vegas and Hawaii travelers for years.