Elvis has left the building for Allegiant Air.
The discount carrier, which at one time served Hawaii on 10 routes from nine mainland cities, quietly ended its lone remaining service with a flight from Honolulu to Las Vegas on Oct. 28.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant had entered the Hawaii market in June 2012 with service from Las Vegas and Fresno, Calif. Its inaugural flight from Las Vegas on June 29, 2012, was celebrated with great fanfare when an Elvis Presley impersonator stepped off the plane and into the waiting area.
But the carrier gradually began pulling back due to waning demand from some of the secondary cities it was serving. It was also affected by increased competition and higher costs for operating its six Boeing 757-200s used on the routes.
Eventually the airline had just two cities remaining — Los Angeles and Las Vegas — before dropping L.A. service in August 2016 after a nearly three-year run on that route.
Allegiant continued the Las Vegas service for a year longer than initially anticipated due to a better-than- expected performance before finally pulling the plug last month.
The six used Boeing 757s that Allegiant had bought prior to starting Hawaii service have now been phased out of its fleet.
At its peak Allegiant flew to Honolulu from Boise, Idaho; Eugene, Ore.; Phoenix; the California cities of Fresno, Los Angeles, Santa Maria and Stockton; and Las Vegas. Allegiant also flew to both Honolulu and Maui from Bellingham, Wash.
One additional city, Monterey, Calif., had its service canceled by Allegiant before it started.
Allegiant has been transitioning for the last two years to an all-Airbus fleet, which involved a planned retirement of its 757s at the end of October. The 757s had been purchased to be used on the Hawaii routes and were the only aircraft in the airline’s fleet certified to fly extended operations over water, Allegiant spokeswoman Krysta Levy said Friday.
“With its retirement came the end of our service to Honolulu,” Levy said. “The decision to end the Hawaii flights was simply due to the fleet transition and the advantages that come with having a single fleet type — efficiencies in training, scheduling, maintenance and more — plus economic benefits like fuel efficiency and seat capacity.”
