Alaska Challenges Allegiant with Bellingham - Las Vegas Flights

(MoneyWatch)  Recently, Allegiant has added some interesting flights from the Pacific Northwest. Most airlines haven't bothered taking them on, but Alaska seems to be willing to fight them now that they're building up around their neighborhood. Starting in June, Alaska will go head-to-head with Allegiant on the Bellingham - Las Vegas route with three weekly flights. This will be interesting to watch.

Allegiant really started to pay attention to the Pacific Northwest when it added a base at Bellingham, located in between Seattle and Vancouver. Then earlier this year, they announced they would fly LAX to Medford, a route flown by Alaska's regional Horizon Air. Just this week, Allegiant announced service between Eugene and Oakland. Alaska is apparently getting nervous.

Beginning June 25, Alaska will fly Bellingham to Vegas in direct competition with Allegiant three times a week. They've probably been watching as Allegiant continues to grow its presence on the route. Though Allegiant usually flies routes a couple times a week, this one is currently flown a couple times a day with up to three times daily on peak days. Clearly, there's a lot of demand.

So Alaska's timid entry here might not be a bad idea in theory, but it's going to be an uphill battle. Allegiant is able to keep fares low by charging fees for just about everything. Alaska doesn't, so it's going to have trouble getting much revenue here.

Alaska has a good schedule for people going down for the weekend - flying Thursday and Friday, but I'm not sure how the people going down on two days are all going to fit on the one plane coming back on Sunday. Let's not even talk about the flights going in the other direction those days. Those will be tough to fill.

It's also important to remember that packaging is how Allegiant makes much of their money. Alaska can offer packages, but it's not going to be nearly as lucrative for them.

I think this is going to be a tough one for Alaska.