Allegiant Air is launching new flights from Atlantic City to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Petersburg, and Punta Gorda, adding pressure on Spirit Airlines.
Allegiant Air is giving Atlantic City travelers another option to fly to Florida.
Beginning on December 11th, the ultra-low-cost carrier will launch flights between Atlantic City and Fort Lauderdale. In February 2026, the airline will add three additional destinations from Atlantic City: St. Petersburg, Orlando, and Punta Gorda.
This announcement comes as Atlantic City’s only full-time airline, Spirit Airlines, continues to face financial challenges. Spirit made headlines this week with lackluster quarterly earnings. Its CEO even warned that without a financial recovery plan, the airline could potentially fold.
Allegiant’s Chief Commercial Officer, Drew Wells commented on the new service:
“Connecting this vibrant community with several cities across Florida not only strengthens our leisure network, but opens up more affordable and convenient travel options for our customers in both regions. It’s a win for travelers seeking sun and sand, and for those who want to experience the coastal charm of the Eastern Seaboard or stroll along Atlantic City’s famed Boardwalk.”
This new Atlantic City–Florida service is part of a wave of winter scheduling announcements from Allegiant. Florida remains one of the most competitive and highly demanded markets for leisure travelers, especially for those on the East Coast.
While both Spirit and Allegiant fall under the ULCC model, their strategies differ. Spirit isn’t afraid of entering large markets like New York, offering daily service to a wide range of destinations. Allegiant, in comparison, targets underserved airports like Syracuse and operates just a few flights per week. But the two carriers directly compete in one major arena: Florida.
Spirit has long focused its efforts out of its base in Fort Lauderdale, while many of Allegiant’s East Coast routes also terminate in Florida. With Spirit struggling, Allegiant’s Florida expansion could be a timely opportunity to capture more leisure-focused travelers in the Northeast.
Atlantic City might seem like a surprising choice, but it could be a well-calculated decision by Allegiant. The airport once hosted a Spirit crew base and, for a long time, Spirit was the only carrier there. Since the early 2010s, airline service dwindled to just a few seasonal routes.
In recent years, Sun Country Airlines began flights from Atlantic City to Minneapolis, but that pairing poses no threat to Spirit’s Florida network. Allegiant’s new Florida routes, however, change the dynamic—putting direct pressure on Spirit’s existing service at the airport.
Will Allegiant turn Atlantic City into a profit-generating focus city? Likely not. But its arrival increases the pressure on Spirit, which has already abandoned the airport as a crew base and shifted more attention to nearby Newark and Philadelphia.
For now, Allegiant’s move into Atlantic City fits perfectly into its strategy of serving overlooked airports with a few weekly flights. With its proximity to two major metro areas, Atlantic City could become an interesting new ULCC battleground for Florida’s leisure market.
