Executive Summary
Bellingham International Airport (BLI) is at a crossroads. Allegiant Air — the only commercial airline that has sustained long-term, profitable operations at BLI — is scaling back. Routes have been trimmed. The based aircraft count has fallen. The 20-year domicile that transformed BLI into a regional aviation hub is at risk of contracting further, or disappearing entirely.
This brief asks the Port of Bellingham, the City of Bellingham, and Whatcom County to recognize Allegiant's presence at BLI for what it is: a community economic asset.
What Is at Stake
- Direct employment: 100+ Allegiant employees based in Whatcom County — pilots, flight attendants, maintenance, and ground personnel. Many are lifelong community members.
- Canadian cross-border spending: Historically ~65% of BLI passengers have been Canadian — representing significant retail, fuel, hotel, and tourism spending in Whatcom County.
- Tourism access: BLI is the low-cost gateway to Bellingham, the San Juan Islands, and southwestern BC for leisure travelers from across the western U.S.
- Regional connectivity: Without BLI, Whatcom County residents must drive over two hours to Seattle-Tacoma — and face some of the most expensive airport parking in the Pacific Northwest. BLI is not just closer; it is materially cheaper for the full trip.
Why This Brief Exists
We are BLI-based Allegiant employees — not Allegiant corporate representatives. We are not negotiating on the company's behalf. What we are doing is raising the alarm with Port, City, and County leadership before a window closes: if community leaders want Allegiant to stay, they will likely need to initiate that conversation with Allegiant corporate themselves, and come to it with something concrete to offer.
This document outlines what kinds of support the community could put on the table — tools the Port and City already have available — so that if and when Port leadership decides to reach out to Allegiant, they are ready to have a substantive discussion.
This is not a corporate subsidy. The appropriate comparison is to a road, a port berth, or a broadband expansion — infrastructure investments communities make because economic returns to the region exceed the cost. That calculus is clear at BLI.
Twenty Years of Commitment
Allegiant Air marked its 20th anniversary serving Bellingham in 2024 — present for more than half of BLI's history of commercial jet service. In that time, United Airlines tried BLI and left. Delta tried and left. Frontier tried and left. Southwest — at its peak accounting for ~41% of all BLI passengers — tried and left in August 2024.
Allegiant did something different. It built a domicile — a true home base — at BLI. It hired locally. Its pilots, flight attendants, and ground crews live in Whatcom County. They coach youth sports, serve on community boards, and pay property taxes here.
"Allegiant is a terrific, low-cost option for millions of potential travelers living within an hour's drive of BLI."
The dashboard above tells the story better than any table could. Every carrier that flew BLI as a spoke operation left. The list is long — United Express, Delta/SkyWest, Frontier, Western Airlines, Skybus, and Southwest all withdrew without ever establishing a local base. The economics of a non-domicile operation at a cross-border airport with seasonal peaks are structurally unforgiving.
Allegiant's domicile model changes the equation entirely. BLI-based crew eliminates repositioning costs. A RON aircraft means first departures generate revenue instead of deadhead expense. Reserves serve multiple routes without positioning overhead. The domicile is not a detail — it is the entire variable that separates 20 years of sustained service from the pattern of entry and exit that characterizes every other carrier in BLI history.
COVID: The Test That Revealed Allegiant's Character
When the COVID-19 pandemic grounded commercial aviation in 2020, every major airline made difficult choices. Most furloughed or laid off workers. Allegiant made a different choice at BLI: it continued paying its 100+ Bellingham-based employees through the zero-flight period.
This was not a legal requirement. It was a values decision — the decision of a company that understood its workforce as a community, not a cost center. No other airline in BLI's history made that choice.
kept on payroll
at COVID peak
who did the same
The Canadian Traffic Engine
At its peak, BLI operated with four based aircraft and nonstop service to San Diego, Long Beach, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Phoenix-Mesa, Las Vegas, Oakland, Reno, Honolulu, and Anchorage. Passenger counts reached 1.163 million in 2013. That peak was driven substantially by Canadian travelers, historically ~65% of BLI passenger volume.
When the Canadian dollar trades near or above parity with the U.S. dollar, the economics for Canadian travelers are particularly strong. The current geopolitical environment — with trade tensions affecting the CAD/USD relationship — is creating conditions that could again favor cross-border traffic. The airport that captures that recovery will be the one that still has a low-cost carrier in place when it arrives.
The Numbers Behind the Case
BLI Catchment Area — Combined Market Population
The Spoke vs. Domicile Record at BLI
| Airline | Period | Model | Duration | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegiant Air | 2004–present | Domicile | 20+ years | Still operating — longest by far |
| Southwest Airlines | 2021–2024 | Spoke | ~3 years | Exited Aug 4, 2024 |
| Alaska Airlines (mainline) | 2009–~2020 | Spoke | ~11 years | All non-SEA routes discontinued |
| Frontier Airlines | 2012–2013 | Spoke | 1 season | Exited after one summer |
| Delta / SkyWest | 2006–2008 | Spoke | ~2 years | Exited; no domicile established |
| Western Airlines (WA) | 2007 | Attempted | <1 year | Collapsed — insufficient base ops |
What the Community Could Offer
The authors of this brief are Allegiant Air employees based at BLI — not Allegiant corporate representatives. We are not negotiating on the company's behalf, and nothing here should be read as a statement of what Allegiant is demanding or expecting.
What we are doing is making the community aware of a potential loss — and laying out the kinds of support tools that Port, City, and County leaders already have available, so that if they choose to reach out to Allegiant corporate and start a conversation, they are prepared to come to the table with something substantive. The decision to initiate that outreach is entirely theirs.
Support Tools the Port and Community Could Put on the Table
What the Numbers Could Look Like
What Other Communities Have Done
BLI would not be pioneering new territory. Air Service Incentive Programs (ASIPs) are common practice at airports across the country — and the FAA's updated 2023 policy framework gives airport sponsors meaningful flexibility in how they are structured. Here is what peer airports have offered:
Airport revenue (landing fees, gate rents, concession revenue) cannot be used for direct cash subsidies to carriers or revenue guarantees — those must come from city or county general funds. However, airport revenue can be used for fee waivers, terminal rent reductions, and joint marketing programs. A well-designed BLI support package would likely combine both airport and community funding sources accordingly.
If BLI loses Allegiant's domicile, the path to recovery is long and uncertain. The track record is not encouraging: United Express, Delta/SkyWest, Frontier, Western Airlines (WA), Skybus, and Southwest have all tried BLI as a spoke operation — and all left. These are not obscure carriers. They are major and mid-size airlines that collectively gave BLI multiple chances, and the spoke model failed every time. There is no reason to believe a new spoke entrant would behave differently. The data is unambiguous: short stay, then exit.
Recruiting a new carrier to establish a domicile at BLI — if possible at all — would likely require a substantially larger incentive package than retaining the carrier already here, already staffed, and already operationally embedded. And that assumes a willing carrier exists. Right now, none does.
If Allegiant vacates BLI's gates and ground position, another carrier could move in — but would not inherit Allegiant's community relationships, locally-based crew, or 20 years of operational investment in this market.
Allegiant is currently navigating a constrained period: low Canadian cross-border traffic following years of geopolitical friction, and a fleet that is stretched thin as resources shift toward higher-margin East Coast markets. The pending Sun Country merger adds further uncertainty about how the Pacific Northwest fits into the combined network.
But these are temporary headwinds, not structural failures. Allegiant just needs to get through a tight period. The 737 MAX is coming online — expanding Allegiant's fleet options — and Sun Country's existing 737 fleet could ultimately strengthen Pacific Northwest coverage. With the combined network still taking shape, now is precisely the wrong time for BLI to go dark. The Port's role is not to resolve the merger uncertainty — that is for Allegiant and Sun Country corporate to work through. But the Port can make BLI a lower-cost, lower-risk place to maintain service during that transition, so that when the landscape clarifies, Allegiant's BLI domicile is still intact.
Consider what that clarified landscape could look like: Sun Country currently flies from Minneapolis (MSP) to Seattle (SEA), Vancouver (YVR), Anchorage (ANC), Portland (PDX), and Spokane (GEG) — every major Pacific Northwest node. A combined Allegiant/Sun Country network, with BLI as an established domicile base in the region, would have a natural platform to rationalize and extend those connections. And one destination conspicuously absent from Sun Country's current map is Victoria (YYJ) — a 441,000-person metro with no U.S. low-cost carrier service whatsoever, sitting less than 30 miles from BLI by ferry. That is not a gap that goes unnoticed by a combined network with Pacific Northwest scale.
What a Thriving BLI Could Become
The conversation about BLI should not only be about preventing loss. With the right support structure, this airport has a genuine growth story to tell.
Alaska Marine Highway Partnership
The Port of Bellingham is the sole lower-48 terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway System. Nearly all Alaska Ferry passengers are one-way on the ferry — returning by air. That return air trip is currently dispersed across SEA, PDX, and other airports. A structured partnership between Allegiant and the AMHS — brokered by the Port — could capture a meaningful share of that return traffic for BLI.
Route Expansion: GEG, PDX, and Restored Destinations
Alaska Airlines launched a new daily BLI–PDX service in March 2026 — validating demand for Portland connectivity from Bellingham. Allegiant has never flown BLI–PDX, but it does operate multiple routes into PDX from other markets, meaning ground handling, gate relationships, and operational infrastructure already exist there. Adding a BLI–PDX leg would be an inside-turn extension of existing Oregon operations, not a cold-start market entry. Spokane (GEG) is a seven-hour mountain-pass drive from Bellingham with no current BLI competitor and existing Allegiant ground infrastructure.
With five based aircraft and a recovered Canadian market, BLI could realistically return to 10+ nonstop destinations and 1M+ annual passengers — restoring its 2013 peak and building a platform for sustained growth through the Alaska Ferry partnership and favorable CAD/USD recovery.