More than 3,800 flights have been canceled as Hurricane Dorian continues its steady march up the east coast of the United States.

Luckily for those Owensboro natives accustomed to Floridian jaunts, Allegiant Air from Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport to Orlando was not among the affected. How was the airline able to avoid such an irritable inevitability? Simple, they are on hiatus.

As the kids go back to school and the adults plan for their next round of family vacations, ticket sales generally slump, prompting the airline to suspend flights in its smaller markets in August and September so that its aircraft can undergo annual heavy maintenance and pilots can train and remain recurrent in new industry practices, said airport Director Rob Barnett.

"Services will start back on Oct. 3," he said. "We had two flights in the first part of August and then they went on hiatus. We are never pleased for any service to temporarily be on hiatus, but we certainly understand their reasons."

Allegiant's absence may be lamented by airport staff, but their hiatus couldn't have come at a better time logistically, especially given the impact of Dorian, Barnett said.

"If we had been in service we would be dealing with lots of rescheduling and as you can imagine complaints because of the impact of the hurricane," he said. "Airports are typically closed at the front end of forecasting with any kind of hurricane or torrential type weather. We would have received notice from the airliner and airport long before now and that process of aiding the patrons and rescheduling would have begun."

While Barnett eagerly awaits Allegiant's return in October, his eyes are also on the airport's Essential Air Service provider Cape Air and the start of the airline's new routes to Nashville.

"We are awaiting the Department of Transportation's approval, which should be out in the next few weeks," he said. "We are hoping to open up Nashville as soon as possible. No dates yet, but the earlier the better in my opinion, especially during the fall weather."

Aside from the new routes, Barnett is also hoping that the airport is among the first to receive Cape Air's new twin-engine Tecnam P2012 Traveller nine-passenger aircraft.

"We are awaiting word from them and it is our hope that we are one of the first airports to receive the first handful of airplanes, which would be great," he said. "We are looking forward to having the planes and the new routes in play and to begin our training to work with the new plane and informational changes."

Jacob Mulliken, 270-228-2837, [email protected].

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