Stockton says Aloha to new flight

May 15--Folks around San Joaquin County with a lust for a luau on Hawaii's white sand beaches can catch nonstop flights from Stockton to Honolulu beginning in fall.

Allegiant Travel Co., the only passenger airline serving Stockton Metropolitan Airport, is announcing that new service today.

Allegiant begins once-a-week flights Nov. 18 and is kicking things off with limited promotional fares as low as $199 one way. Bookings for flights and vacation packages are available now through Jan. 15.

Stockton Metro, where Allegiant has established a strong business carrying vacationers to Las Vegas, has long been on the airline's short list for its new service to Hawaii.

Airport Director Patrick Carreno called the new service "a huge deal."

"What this does for us -- besides getting us flights to Honolulu, which is very exciting and would be very exciting for a lot of airports -- hopefully, it goes some way to showing what we can do here," he said.

On its Hawaiian routes, Allegiant will operate 233-seat Boeing 757s, larger than the 150-seat MD-80 jets it uses on its continental U.S. flights.

Stockton Metro's runway and its new passenger hold room with seating for more than 400 travelers can easily handle the new traffic, Carreno said.

"We can get a Hawaiian flight and a Las Vegas flight in there all at once, no problem," he said.

Hawaii is an entirely new market for Allegiant, which built a growing and profitable business model by connecting smaller metro airports directly to popular leisure destinations, such as Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., with cut-rate airfares and hotel and entertainment packages.

Its inaugural Hawaii service, announced last month, will offer three weekly flights from Las Vegas and once-a-week service from Fresno, beginning in June.

And today, it will announce that Stockton is part of that mix.

Honolulu service also will be added in November from Santa Maria; Eugene, Ore.; and Bellingham, Wash.

"We are confident the community will appreciate the convenience of flying nonstop to Hawaii and the value of bundling their air, hotel and car rental reservation together," said Andrew C. Levy, Allegiant Travel's president.

Allegiant has previously tried flights from Stockton to Phoenix, Long Beach and Palm Springs, but all failed to draw travelers the way its Las Vegas service does.

"We're very bullish on the Hawaii market," Levy said. "We think it's very much like Las Vegas, where you don't have to tell people why they want to go there. We're optimistically hopeful this will be a second market that works really well from the Stockton airport."

Once-a-week service may be inconvenient for some travelers, Levy allowed. However, he said, the average stay for Hawaiian vacationers is about seven days.

And since last month's announcement of once-a-week flights from Fresno to Honolulu, he noted, "That has had a very, very strong response.

"I hope we'll see there the bookings are so strong we'll have to add a second flight before we even start flying, but we'll have to see how the market reacts," Levy said of Stockton service.

Larry Ruhstaller, who as a San Joaquin County supervisor helps oversee the county-operated airport, welcomed Allegiant's announcement, saying the new service could well draw travelers from Stanislaus County to the south to Sacramento County on the north.

"Hopefully, everybody will jump on board and make it as successful as the flights over to Las Vegas," he said.

Information about flight dates and times are available online at allegiant.com or by calling the airline at (702) 505-8888, long-distance to Las Vegas. Fares booked online include a $10 convenience charge and $14.99 for fares booked via telephone. Baggage fees of up to $35 per bag are applied to one carry-on and up to two checked bags.

Contact reporter Reed Fujii at (209) 546-8253 or [email protected].

Copyright 2012 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.