Originally Posted by deelmakur

There is no market in BLI. If there were, somebody would fly it long haul (like SWA). It's junk traffic, which is what Allegiant is all about. People who wouldn't fly anything else. If AS wanted to fly YVR-HNL, they could. CO had the route a number of years ago, and variously, Qantas, Air New Zealand, and Air Pacific (Polynesian carrier) served it, mostly with widebodies. All gone. There is still room for a US carrier on the route under the open skies agreement. Non hub operations are costly, especially when your hub is 100 miles away. That's why AS fought, and politiced against (successfully) the proposed move of SWA to BFI (they'd have had to go over as well, with competing flights). Maybe some folks in the north end remember the Horizon service out of Paine Field, which soon became a bus, then disappeared. The BLI move, along with stopping the BFI reopening for majors, and the legal assault on Virgin America (AS claimed it had too much foreign ownership....never proven) had only one goal. To keep fares high. As a business guy, I admire them. They run an excellent company. But to do that, they need to do two things. Eliminate competition and raise fares. If Allegiant bails, so will Alaska.