St. Cloud Receives State Grant to Market Allegiant Airlines

ST. CLOUD - St. Cloud will be using a state grant to help market the airline service that we still have. The St. Cloud city council has approved accepting a grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation in the amount of just over $14,000, with a local match of just over $6,000.

Airport Director Bill Towle says they will use the money to market Allegiant Airlines, to ensure that we keep them at the airport. Towle says their twice-weekly flights to-and-from Mesa, Arizona have had about a 98 percent load factor over the past two months.

St. Cloud plans to meet with Allegiant officials in May in order to encourage them to add other leisure destinations out of St. Cloud, possibly returning the Orlando flight and adding regular service to Las Vegas.

St. Cloud and the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation have spent about $50,000 a year over the past couple of years marketing Allegiant service.

Towle says right now they are not talking with any other airlines about regular service. He says they need time to analyze what went wrong with the United flights to-and-from Chicago O'Hare Airport.