Two low-cost carriers made bold moves this morning to garner new attention from Northwest Arkansas travelers.
Startup airline Breeze Airways announced a new “Endless Summer Breeze” promotion, selling hundreds of seats for $39 each way from Northwest Arkansas National Airport to New Orleans and San Antonio. The sale ends Aug. 16, and the rock-bottom price is available for some flights between late August and mid-February.
Meanwhile, Allegiant Air took another step forward in its bid to be the low-cost king at XNA, announcing plans to fly to the southern Florida destination of Punta Gorda. Some of those twice-a-week flights, which first take off on Nov. 17, are selling for $49 each way.
XNA continues to be the cat’s meow of rapidly expanding low-cost airlines. Breeze, Allegiant and Frontier Airlines have added nonstops flights to 10 destinations from XNA this year, and nine of the airports are new destinations from XNA.
Here’s the full list in alphabetical order:
- Austin: Allegiant started flying to the Texas capital city on July 2.
- Fort Lauderdale: this will be Allegiant, on Mondays and Fridays, and starting in October.
- Houston: Allegiant goes to Houston Hobby, starting Nov. 19, and flying twice a week. United already flies XNA to Houston, but it lands at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
- Las Vegas: No need to wait for a competitor to Allegiant Air for much longer. The Frontier Airlines’ trips to Sin City start Friday this week.
- New Orleans: Breeze Airways, which launched its entire route network in late May, started flying to New Orleans in mid-July.
- Orlando: Allegiant has flown to the Orlando/Sanford airport for years, but Frontier’s new flight to Orlando International Airport is much closer to Disney and other tourist destinations. The nonstop starts on Nov. 1.
- Punta Gorda: It’s right next to Fort Myers, a popular tourist spot in southwest Florida. Flights start Nov. 17 on Allegiant.
- San Antonio: Breeze took off for San Antonio the same day it launched New Orleans. When it comes to the $39 sale announced by Breeze today, it appears New the San Antonio route has the most seats available at that rock-bottom price.
- St. Pete/Clearwater: Allegiant trips to a new part of the Gulf of Mexico started July 2.
- Tampa: Widely considered the best of the three destinations offered by Breeze, its four-times-a-week flights to the city started June 17.
