Allegiant Air has quietly erased four airports from its route map, and the pattern is striking: three of them are in California. Schedule data for 2026 shows the ultra-low-cost carrier no longer flying to Los Angeles (LAX), Oakland (OAK), Palm Springs (PSP) and Columbia, South Carolina (CAE).

The LAX exit is the big one. Allegiant first landed there on 1 May 2009 with routes to Grand Junction and Medford, then added 11 more markets that spring alone. Over 17 years it operated dozens of routes from the airport and carried 5.8 million passengers, with Bellingham its busiest route by far at 629,000 round-trip travellers, ahead of Medford, Eugene and Springfield. Still, it was a drop in the ocean at a mega-hub like LAX — roughly one in every 143 domestic passengers there. Loads averaged a healthy 86.4% overall, but some routes flopped hard: its short-lived Las Vegas flights filled just 31.7% of seats.

There is a wrinkle for Bay Area travellers: Allegiant's parent company now owns Sun Country, which serves LAX and Palm Springs, and flies to San Francisco rather than Oakland. But those flights only run to Minneapolis, so unless you are heading to Minnesota, the practical effect is the same.

The California retreat deepens. After dropping San Diego in September 2025, Allegiant's Golden State presence is down to six airports: Burbank, Fresno, Monterey, Orange County, Santa Maria and Stockton. The LA Basin is still covered, technically, via Burbank and Orange County — but San Francisco Bay is now completely off the map for the carrier.

Columbia's story is a quick failure. Allegiant returned there in May 2025 after a 16-year gap, but only from Orlando Sanford, and flights filled just 47.3% of seats. It pulled out after a year. South Carolina is still served through Charleston, Greenville/Spartanburg and Myrtle Beach, though overall Allegiant activity is down 32% year over year.

For travellers, the takeaway is to double-check schedules before booking. Allegiant is famously spiky — its network changes day by day, with Tuesdays making up only 5% of its flying against 20% on Sundays — and it relies on secondary airports like Orlando Sanford, Tampa St. Pete and Punta Gorda. If a route matters to your trip, book alternatives in mind, because low-cost carriers prune relentlessly when loads disappoint.