Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:52 pm
joleo wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:32 pm
Allegiant was doing well in Omaha and they were considering it for a future base. Allegiant was set to announce OMA-FLL last winter, Southwest got wind and added it instead at 1x weekly and scared Allegiant away. They are doing the same thing with 1x weekly OMA-AUS. Southwest is sending a message to Allegiant don't you dare base aircraft in Omaha because we will respond.
This is sad because Allegiant flies to 20 cities from Des Moines and really makes travel really affordable compared to Southwest. My friend just flew nonstop to Orange County from Des Moines and he said with bag fees, they were $170 roundtrip each. He drove to Des Moines from Omaha for the flights for his family.
Omaha is very profitable for southwest, it's in their top 10% of cities for profit, they are making sure it stays this way.
If Allegiant came, prices would go down and Omaha would pick up nonstops to San Diego, Portland, Newark, Ft Lauderdale and probably a few others as well. Maybe Palm Springs and Charleston, SC.
The best way to do this is support Allegiant and stop flying Southwest whenever possible. I avoid both Southwest and Delta because of how they stifle competition.
Allegiant flies to 16 cities from DSM, not 20. They have 34 departures a week and serve most cities 2x per week. LAS and BNA have 4x per week and Ft Walton and Santa Ana have 1x per week. With regard to OMA, Allegiant has grown to 8 cities and Southwest and Allegiant compete in at least four of them.
My point is that I'm unclear where Southwest is afraid of Allegiant. Both have grown at OMA. A 1x per week flight spooked Southwest? I see that DSM doesn't have many Southwest flights so I guess Allegiant is adding to their mix, though even with lots of cities the yearly pax count is still rather low.
With regard to OMA in the top 10% of cities for profit, is that per seat? Any other data point simply doesn't make sense.
Southwest is not afraid of Allegiant, they want to defend their margins and OMA is a super high margin market for them (Very expensive fares) due to lack of competition from low cost airlines. Measured several different ways but Revenue per Available Seat Mile (RASM) is a good metric. All from DOT data. The only exception is OMA-DEN. Even OMA-DEN fares have gone way up recently, Frontier has taken notice and flying almost daily again this summer because of it. Actually some months it is daily (August is one).
Southwest is just sending a statement to Allegiant with 1x Weekly OMA-FLL and 1x weekly OMA-AUS telling Allegiant they will respond if Allegiant makes adds and Southwest doesn't want an Allegiant operation like DSM in OMA, it will erode their pile of gold they are currently getting in Omaha. This has happened to Southwest already in many cities around the nation by Allegiant, Spirit and Frontier and they are just defending what they consider their turf. I think Allegiant will stick around in Omaha but it will just have to play it all VERY VERY slowly.
On a side note, Allegiant varies their Des Moines schedule widely based off consumer demand but like you say, most routes are 2x weekly at a minimum and only a few are seasonal. If you check July, they are at 43 weekly DSM flights but only a few on Tuesday's. In March, there are several routes that are daily each year including Orlando, Tampa, Nashvile and Las Vegas. They did drop Palm Springs and Memphis.
Other current examples of airlines being jerks in Omaha:
Sun Country adds OMA-MSP at 2x weekly for the summer. Delta is normally $359 one-way. On the days Sun Country flies OMA-MSP, the flights are only $79 on Delta, all other days remain super high. They want Sun Country to leave the route.
Frontier adds OMA-DFW. American responds by adding another flight and dropping their fares way down. Hopefully people chose Frontier and the route sticks, otherwise Frontier will leave and American will jack their prices right back up. This is a big market though and there might be enough passengers for Frontier to stick around. Hopefully.
Omaha is a big enough market they can support more nonstop cities but Southwest is preventing it is my only point as I'm very well versed in the airline industry. Other cities have experienced this as well some, Omaha is not the only one. Omaha is leaking more and more passengers to DSM and MCI then they used to as well. An Allegiant agent in DSM stated about a year ago that some of their flights are more than 50% nebraskan's. This leakage to KC and DSM would but cut way down with additional destinations and would be a huge benefit to the city. Waived landing fees for a year on targeted destinations would go a long ways on getting this done. I know, that's a change of thinking compared to now.
