Allegiant Air suspends summer service to St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD — Snowbirds traveling home for a Minnesota summer will be out of luck if they planned to fly Allegiant Air to the St. Cloud Regional Airport.

Airport Director Bill Towle said Friday that the airline was discontinuing service for the season while it reallocates planes from the Phoenix-Mesa airport to other cities across the country.

"They're a very dynamic airline — very strategic — and I'm assuming they feel they can generate more money on those airplanes if they are at other destinations," Towle said, adding Allegiant is also trying to "navigate through a shortage of aircraft and a shortage of crew."

Allegiant began providing service to Phoenix-Mesa in 2012 and Punta Gorda, Fla., which is near Fort Myers, in 2017.

The Arizona flights are typically offered year-round because of demand from people who have retired to the area. The snowbirds travel back to Minnesota for the summer, and their families — or anyone seeking a warm vacation — travel to Arizona in the winter, Towle said.

This year, Allegiant will discontinue service to and from Phoenix-Mesa on May 5, with the twice-weekly flights slated to resume Oct. 5. Florida flights end April 3; the winter season isn't listed on Allegiant's website.

Towle said Allegiant reassured him the airport's performance was not the reason for the seasonal lapse in service.

"Our performance to Phoenix-Mesa is totally fine," Towle said. "Our load factors are in the mid- to upper 80-percentile, which is great at any time, let alone in the summer when it's kind of an off-peak [time]."

The summer is also the slowest time of year at St. Cloud Regional Airport, accounting for less than 10% of annual ridership.

Towle said it's typical for Allegiant to discontinue service for six to eight weeks in the late summer and early fall for maintenance.

"They're resuming service earlier than normal," Towle said. "We're on their schedule for Oct. 5, which is about a month earlier than it's been in the past."

The airport has long struggled to secure lasting commercial service in part because of its proximity to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

United Airlines provided a short-lived service from St. Cloud to Chicago from 2014-2015. Last year, Allegiant announced flights between St. Cloud and Destin, Fla., from June through August but canceled the last 10 or so flights in early July.

Sun Country also offers charter flights to Laughlin, Nev.; this year, Sun Country is offering short trips once per month in March, April and May.

"I don't want to give the impression that there's all of a sudden no airplanes flying into St. Cloud," Towle said. "In fact, the airline is an absolute fraction of what actually flies out here. There are still corporate airplanes, small single and twin [engines], flight training, the [National] Guard facility — all of that is still going to be operating on a daily basis."