Despite border restrictions, Allegiant bringing back Bellingham flights in early June
Allegiant Airlines is moving forward with plans to restart flights out of Bellingham International Airport in early June.
The first flights out of Bellingham will be on Thursday, June 4, to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. That will be followed by flights to Phoenix, San Diego, Oakland and Palm Springs, California, on Friday, June 5. The airline stopped offering flights out of Bellingham soon after the U.S.-Canada border closed to non-essential traffic in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The airline has decided to restart the service out of Bellingham even though the U.S.-Canada border remains closed to non-essential travel through at least June 21.
To get people flying again, Allegiant is offering incredibly low fares, said Sunil Harman, the Port of Bellingham’s aviation director. On Tuesday, May 19, Allegiant was offering flights to Las Vegas for as low as $37 each way.
“The port views Allegiant’s return to Bellingham International Airport as an encouraging indication of the region’s and nation’s economic recovery,” Harman said in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
The busiest days for the airport in June will be Mondays and Friday, which will have five daily flights. Alaska Airlines is currently offering one flight a day between Bellingham and Seattle.
With the pandemic shutting down a lot of travel in April, the airport’s numbers dropped dramatically. According to the port, only 502 people flew out of the airport for the entire month. In April 2019, the passenger total was 28,146.
Harman said the return to service is planned to coincide with the phased opening of those markets. Several Las Vegas hotels, for example, are scheduled to open in late May and early June. He also noted that Allegiant Air has committed to issuing health kits to all passengers, including face masks and disinfectant wipes.
Sonya Padgett of Allegiant media relations said they don’t require passengers to wear face masks during the flights, but strongly encourage it.
“We’ve found that most customers have already adopted this as a practice,” Padgett said in an email, adding that they’ve also set up a detailed list of preventive steps they are taking on the airline’s website.
These measures complement the airport terminal rules of requiring people to wear masks at the airport except for areas where food and beverages are served, Harman added.
