Discount carrier Allegiant Air lands first flight in Ogdensburg

CTV Ottawa: Allegiant Air makes debut CTV’s Joanne Schnurr reports from Ogdensburg where Allegiant Air launched its new cheap flights to southern destinations.

The discount airline Allegiant Air made its inaugural flight into the Ogdensburg airport today. It's offering four direct flights a week to Florida, hoping to capitalize on Canadian snowbirds looking for a deal.

Theresa Haveman from Ottawa was here to take the inaugural flight out of Ogdensburg; a one-way flight south for about $80 bucks Canadian.

“Money was good, it was cheap,” Haveman said, hauling her small piece of luggage behind her, “It's great.”

But all this, the band, the dignitaries and the “water salute” was for the inaugural flight of Allegiant Air into this small U.S. city, about an hour south of Ottawa.

“First one to land here in Ogdensburg,” said air traveler Sally Grauso, as she stepped out of the airport, “glad to be here.”

Passenger Terry Melton said normally he would have had to travel by car to Syracuse to catch a flight, “Saved us three hours of travel,” he says, “so it was nice.”

This is a big deal for this area. It is a major economic expansion worth about $26-million dollars that included expanding the runway, even moving a portion of a state road.

“This is a really big deal for northern New York,” said Wade Davis, the Executive Director of the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority, “direct flights to Sanford and Fort Lauderdale.

The hope is to attract forty thousand more airline passengers a year here and they are expecting half their traffic will be from Canada, folks like Alec and Jane Rigakis from Manotick, checking it out, hoping to save money.

“Definitely,” says Jane, “that's what we're here to find out.”

While this day is all about good media attention, there has been a lot of bad media attention about Allegiant Air in recent months. There have been concerns from the Federal Aviation Administration over safety and concerns from the pilots union over maintenance.

Allegiant Air didn't want to talk about that today.

“Today we are just concentrating on the opening of Ogdensburg,” said Michelle Cohen with Allegiant Air, “if you have additional questions, our media line can handle that.”

But the Ottawa Airport Authority said passengers need to take everything into  account when they are price checking.

“We know they have limited amenities there (in Ogdensburg),” said Krista Kealey, the director of Communications and Public Affairs for the Ottawa Airport Authority, “and yes those price points look good at first glance but you don’t know what the ancillary fees are after that you have to pay for, including seats, meals, luggage.”

$75 dollar flights one way to Florida could drive up competition but Ogdensburg says Ottawa shouldn't worry.

“Let's be realistic,” Wade Davis adds, “we are starting out with 4 flights a week. That will not impact Ottawa in any way, shape or form.”