{"id":85704,"date":"2026-01-13T18:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85704\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:09:10","slug":"what-will-allegiant-merger-mean-for-lehigh-valley-travelers-lehigh-valley-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85704\/","title":{"rendered":"What will Allegiant merger mean for Lehigh Valley travelers? | Lehigh Valley Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Will a new acquisition from Allegiant make nonstop commercial flights from the Lehigh Valley to international destinations a reality once more?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Travelers will have to wait and see.<\/p>\n<p>As <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/lehighvalley\/lehigh-county\/allentown-area\/abes-main-carrier-wants-to-buy-rival-with-slate-of-international-destinations\/article_44c5411f-616c-447b-bc79-6fb3a2a617e1.html#tncms-source=Homepage-Top-Stories\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">69 News reported<\/a> on Sunday evening, Allegiant, the Las Vegas-based budget carrier that does a lot of business at Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE), intends to acquire\u00a0Sun Country Airlines in a $1.5 billion deal.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Lehigh Valley International Airport\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6965dd49456ae.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n<p>Allegiant does not currently offer international destinations, but Sun Country, based in Minneapolis, does.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday morning, the heads of both carriers held a webcast to talk about the deal with investors and the media.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We expect to drive growth by flying to new potential markets by connecting Allegiant&#8217;s origination markets with some countries&#8217; international leisure destinations, including Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and Canada,&#8221; said Allegiant CEO Greg Anderson.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s all that&#8217;s being said about Allegiant&#8217;s &#8220;expanded service&#8221; for now. A spokesperson for ABE referred 69 News to Allegiant. A spokesperson for Allegiant would only say that the &#8220;transaction will deliver more choice, convenience, and value for our customers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been more than 13 years since ABE has been a true international airport. The carrier Air Georgian pulled the plug on its flights from the airport to Toronto, Canada in August of 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Allegiant plane resized\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/69644559ed663.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Allegiant is one of four carriers that serves ABE. It currently flies from the Lehigh Valley to ten destinations, primarily in Florida. Options outside the Sunshine State are Denver, Colo.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Myrtle Beach, S.C.<\/p>\n<p>Allegiant has been flying in and out of ABE for 20 years. It opened a crew base there in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ABE marked the opening of a new TSA checkpoint and terminal connector in 2023. At the time, the airport said the $35 million facility included an additional lane for TSA security processing, with the potential for expansion. It&#8217;s not clear if the airport currently has the capabilities to screen passengers for international flights.<\/p>\n<p>Allegiant said the merger with Sun Country\u00a0is expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will a new acquisition from Allegiant make nonstop commercial flights from the Lehigh Valley to international destinations a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6114,42868,42866,119,121,120,38240,3767,6113,26474,42867,42869],"class_list":["post-85704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-acquisition","tag-airline-industry","tag-allegiant","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-international-flights","tag-lehigh-valley-international-airport","tag-merger","tag-nonstop-flights","tag-sun-country-airlines","tag-travelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}