The Columbia Metropolitan Airport is adding what many local travelers often clamor for: a budget airline.
Allegiant, which is in in the midst of a major expansion, is adding two new flights to Columbia’s offerings.
A flight to Orlando Sanford International Airport, which serves a pair of popular tourism destinations in Orlando and Daytona Beach, and a flight to another Florida tourist mecca in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will be available beginning in May.
The airline’s expansion into Columbia is big news for the small but growing airport, which this year is poised to see its busiest on record with an expected 1.4 million passengers before the end of the year. By 2044, that number could surpass 2 million, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
As ever, the Columbia airport is striving to get more fliers to choose local over flying out of Charlotte. That N.C. city’s Charlotte Douglas International Airport, which sits around an hour and a half from Columbia, ranked as the ninth busiest airport in North America in terms of passengers with a record-breaking 53 million in 2023, per the airport’s website. It offers nonstop service to more than 186 destinations via “eight major air carriers, 15 regional carriers and three foreign flag carriers.”
The Columbia airport hopes that more flight options at a lower price will help move the needle at home. Allegiant touts flights “less than half” the average price of a round-trip domestic flight.
“Securing a reputable low-cost carrier with brand recognition like Allegiant is a significant win not only for the airport but the entire Columbia region,” Kim Crafton, Vice President of Marketing and Air Service Development at CAE, said in a statement.
The news comes as the airport continues work on a slate of big projects, including an effort to build a new hotel near the terminal for travelers with early-morning and late-night flights, and expanding its securing checkpoints from two lanes to four.
The move into Columbia is part of an ongoing growth spurt for Allegiant.
Myrtle Beach is also getting new flights from Allegiant – to Plattsburgh, New York and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Earlier this year Allegiant announced three new flights from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport all to different Florida airports.
Allegiant has been carving out its own niche in the air travel industry since 1999. Its strategy is to target small, “underserved” airports that are often passed over by larger airlines. Allegiant focuses on nonstop flights under 350 miles to vacation destinations, which it says is a non-competitive market because other airlines just don’t operate that way.
“We operate in our own swim lane with 75 percent of our routes facing no nonstop, direct competition,” Allegiant CEO Maurice Gallagher Jr. said in a statement this summer. “This number has remained virtually unchanged for over a decade.”
American, Delta and United airlines also fly out of Columbia.
The inaugural Allegiant flight leaves Columbia for Daytona Beach on May 15.
Allegiant is offering discounted tickets for the first two months of flights, if they are purchased by Wednesday, Nov. 20. For more information visit allegiant.com.
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