Allegiant Air is on the rise. The low-cost, leisure-focused carrier has always been a niche player, but the news coming out of the airline over the past year has been consistently positive. The company reported better-than-expected financial results last week, and took a moment to highlight that SkyTrax had awarded it America’s Best Low-Cost Carrier for the second year in succession. Earlier in January, the The Wall Street Journal ranked Allegiant second in its list of top US airlines, placing it ahead of all three of the large legacy carriers. The airline posted a 99.89% controllable completion rate in 2025, and ranked first in the industry for the fewest cancellations. Allegiant is also number one in the industry at handling baggage and did not involuntarily bump a single passenger in 2025.

And then there is Sun Country Airlines, with the two carriers announcing last month that they plan to merge later this year, in a deal that is widely expected to be approved by the US Department of Justice. And all this time, the carrier has been rapidly growing its fleet and its network, doubling down on its winning strategy of flying to Florida. The airline now has six bases in the Sunshine State, all of which have over a million available seats. So let’s use some 2025 data from Cirium to better understand the strategic role of each of these bases.

Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport

At The Heart Of The Emerald Coast

Credit: Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport

Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS) is a unique joint-use commercial facility situated within Eglin Air Force Base. The airport does not own its own runways; instead, civilian airliners share runways with military aircraft, and it’s a favorite with aviation enthusiasts as passengers frequently witness military fighter jets during take-off or landing. Situated at the heart of the Emerald Coast, it is also one of the fastest-growing airports in the United States, with air service more than doubling since pre-pandemic levels.

Destin is the smallest of Allegiant’s Florida bases, but it is the dominant carrier there, even having its own dedicated Concourse C, an $11.4 million expansion that opened in 2022. While other airlines are also growing at Destin, notably JetBlue which is launching seasonal non-stop service from New York and Boston, Allegiant remains the market leader with nearly a third of all flights.

Allegiant currently operates to 33 destinations from VPS, with Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) being its most frequent route, and it offered close to a million available seats in 2025. This year, Allegiant is expanding further to include new routes to Columbia, Missouri, and Denver, Colorado.

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

The Gateway To Florida’s Sun Coast

Credit: Allegiant Air

Sitting just south of Tampa, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) has long been a key gateway to Florida’s Sun Coast, and primarily a leisure destination. It has benefited greatly from the recent surge in leisure travel, with passenger numbers quadrupling over pre-pandemic levels and the airport serving a record 4.5 million visitors in 2025. Much of this growth has been attributed to Allegiant, which started flying to Sarasota for the first time in 2018, and has grown to become the largest carrier at the airport.

Allegiant serves 36 different destinations from Sarasota, with a focus on Midwest cities like Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Grand Rapids. In 2025, it surpassed a million annual passengers for the first time, having added nine new routes over the course of the year, and it has already announced further growth in 2026 with new nonstop service to Rochester scheduled to begin later this week. The airline operates exclusively from the new $100 million, 75,300-square-foot Concourse A, which opened in January 2025 and has five gates and a dedicated security checkpoint.

However, Allegiant has faced new challenges in recent years. Having surpassed much-larger Southwest Airlines for the first time last year to become the number one carrier at SRQ, it faces the entrance of a number of new rivals. Most notably, Breeze Airways has started encroaching on the corridor to the Northeast, adding nine new destinations in the past couple of years, and can be expected to become a more formidable competitor to Allegiant over time.

Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport

Competing At A Massive South Florida LCC Hub

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Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) operates as Miami’s second airport, and is a massive hub for low-cost carriers in South Florida. The airport is currently a battleground between Spirit Airlines, which is in retreat amidst its second bankruptcy proceedings, and JetBlue, which is rushing to fill the void. Delta Air Lines and Southwest also have substantial operations at the airport, both carrying more than three million passengers annually.

As a result, FLL is unlike all of Allegiant’s other bases in Florida, in that the carrier only has a single-digit market share, and clearly operates in the shadow of much larger budget carriers. However, its network would be incomplete without a South Florida base, and FLL makes the most sense given the available infrastructure and proximity to key destinations in the region.

Nevertheless, Allegiant has managed to carve out its own niche at FLL, offering nearly 1.5 million seats annually to 36 different destinations. It specializes in offering nonstop flights to key secondary cities, such as Asheville, Knoxville, Concord and Allentown, which have sufficient demand from passengers looking for sunny getaways, but where it doesn’t compete with any other carrier on the route.

Punta Gorda Airport

The Alternative Gateway To Fort Myers

Credit: Shutterstock

Millions of people visit Southwest Florida every year, and most fly into Fort Myers International Airport, but Punta Gorda Airport (PGD) is a smaller and much less crowded secondary gateway. It is famous for being the host of the Florida International Air Show for nearly 50 years, and for having no jet bridges — you get to walk down a ramp and out to your aircraft like in the old days.

Punta Gorda has experienced massive growth over the past decade, going from just a few hundred thousand passengers to 2.3 million last year, a new record that was a 19% increase over the year prior. This tremendous growth can be directly attributed to Allegiant, which holds a 99% market share at the airport. The only other airline serving PGD is a seasonal route is Sun Country from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport(MSP). But given that Allegiant and Sun Country are due to merge later this year, the airport will soon be returning to single carrier operations.

Punta Gorda is the location of one of Allegiant’s major stumbles in the past few years. The airline decided to branch out, developing its Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor as a destination for which PGD was the primary gateway. But the project was almost immediately beset by a range of challenges, such as the pandemic pausing construction, severe hurricane damage, and even a construction fire. As a result, the luxury resort only opened years late and way over budget, and struggled to draw in customers, with the resort barely half-full even during high season. Allegiant ended up selling the resort last year to Blackstone Real Estate for $200 million, having accrued hundreds of millions of dollars of losses.

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St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport

Allegiant’s Largest Base On The Florida West Coast

Credit: Shutterstock

St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport (PIE) is a key secondary gateway for the Tampa Bay area, located near the site of the world’s first commercial airline flight. On January 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line sold the first-ever ticket to a fare-paying passenger, and a replica of the Benoist amphibious airplane used for this flight is displayed in the terminal’s baggage claim area.​​​​​​​ Marketed as “Tampa Bay The Easy Way,” the airport offers a compact single-terminal layout where parking and gates are within short walking distance

Similar to Allegiant’s other dominant bases, PIE has seen extraordinary growth in recent years, doubling annual traffic over pre-pandemic levels. Last year the airport welcomed 2.8 million passengers, a 17% increase over the year prior. This growth is set to continue in 2026, with Allegiant set to launch three new routes to Atlantic City, Huntsville, and Trenton in the next few weeks.

Like PGD, Allegiant has a 99% market share at PIE, with the only other carrier being the soon-to-be-merged Sun Country Airlines. It offers an average of 52 daily non-stop flights and serves 62 destinations, and had nearly 3.4 million total seats for sale last year. This year the airline and airport are confident that Tampa’s secondary gateway will surge north of 3 million annual passengers.

Orlando Sanford International Airport

Allegiant’s Alternative Gateway To America’s Theme Park Capital

Credit: Shutterstock

Orlando Sanford International Airport(SFB) is another example of a classic Allegiant base — while nearly all other carriers fly to Orlando International Airport (MCO), Allegiant has taken over this secondary airport, building it up into its largest Florida hub. The airport itself is widely recognized as a major hub for aspiring pilots. Despite its “secondary” status, SFB consistently ranks among the top 30 busiest airports in the world for flight operations, largely due to its massive pilot training programs.

Allegiant first started operating at SFB twenty years ago, and as other carriers have left, it has filled the void, doubling the airport’s total annual passengers over that time to nearly 3 million. Last year it had over 20,000 annual flights to the airport, or an average of 58 per day, with a 99% market share. The only other airline at SFB is the Caribbean carrier Arajet, which operates a three-times-weekly service to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

Despite its dominant space within the Allegiant network, the carrier has continued to add new routes to SFB, and last year launched new service to Columbia, Des Moines, and Rapid City, and this year will add Huntsville and La Crosse. Notably, SFB will also play host to Allegiant’s only red-eye flight in its network, when an overnight service from Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas begins in March.