Allegiant Airlines will close its crew base at Bellingham International Airport on Nov. 2
Updated July 20, 2026
The November closure of the Allegiant Airlines crew base at Bellingham International Airport means about 35 local flight attendants will be given the option to move to other bases, a union representative said.
Allegiant is an ultra-low cost carrier that serves leisure destinations and charges extra for amenities such as seat assignments, onboard food and beverages and checked baggage.
An Allegiant spokesperson confirmed the airline will continue offering flights to and from Bellingham, but the crews will come from bases in other cities. The spokesperson added the decision reflects broader travel changes including cross-border travel between the United States and Canada. The Port of Bellingham wrote in an April post that the airline will continue serving existing Bellingham routes and flight schedules.
Transport Workers Union 577 is the union that represents flight attendants at Allegiant. Union president Christa Gifford confirmed 35 Bellingham-based flight attendants will be impacted by the base closure.
Gifford said flight attendants bid on base assignments based on seniority and base availability. “(Flight attendants) get the ability on the bid to choose what month they want to leave, so some people who are ready to move might choose August, which is the earliest that they can go, so they can choose anywhere between August and November,” she said. “I have a feeling that most of them will stay until the end because they don’t want to leave.”
A number of mechanics, pilots and other staff will be affected by the base closure, but an Allegiant Airlines spokesperson didn’t confirm the total number of local workers impacted. The spokesperson said that in the event of a base closure, the airline works with team members to place them throughout the network.
Gifford said Allegiant has had a Bellingham base since around 2008. “There are flight attendants there that have been there the entire time, so they’ve gotten married and had children and bought houses and all those things, so that’s part of what makes this really hard for them too,” she said.
To maintain employment with the company, flight attendants will have to relocate to other bases, Gifford said. Roughly 34 flight attendants will be relocating to nine bases throughout the Allegiant network, including 13 flight attendants transferring to Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Ariz., seven to Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina, five to Provo Airport in Provo, Utah, and four to Appleton International Airport in Appleton, Wisc. The remaining nine flight attendants are to be assigned to six additional bases in smaller numbers.
Bellingham marks the fourth base closure in recent years, and flight attendants have shared a strong sense of community and a close-knit group, Gifford said, adding Bellingham-based flight attendants love where they live and enjoy working for Allegiant.
“Once we made the announcement (to flight attendants about the base closure), we immediately started talking to the company to come up with an agreement for the flight attendants, because I mean, there’s really nothing that you could give somebody to make this better, and we realized that. We tried to get whatever we could for them,” she said.
Gifford said the union was notified on March 31 and negotiated with management to allow flight attendants to receive roughly $7,500 for moving expenses, as outlined in the contract between the company and the union. On May 12, Allegiant and Transport Workers Union signed a Memorandum of Agreement outlining closure plans for impacted flight attendants.
Suspended flights
The Bellingham Herald reported on June 25 Allegiant is also suspending flights to Palm Springs due to the base closure. An Allegiant spokesperson declined to comment on the reason for the closure.
Allegiant’s route map shows Las Vegas, Phoenix/Mesa and Burbank as destinations served from Bellingham International Airport. Allegiant doesn’t currently serve other nearby airports, such as Skagit Regional Airport in Skagit County or Friday Harbor Airport in San Juan County, based on the destinations published on the airline’s website. [Ed.: Previous version listed an outdated destination]
The Port of Bellingham director of aviation, Matt Rodriguez, said flight schedule changes could impact travelers wishing to travel to Oakland or Los Angeles as the airline has discontinued these destinations from Bellingham. Rodriguez said he learned on March 31 about both the crew base closure and route suspensions as part of Allegiants annual conference in Las Vegas.
“Allegiant’s flight schedule varies year to year, but the aforementioned change in routes and frequencies was significant compared to prior years. The suspension of the Bay Area (Oakland) and Los Angeles flights will have an impact on our community. Both routes performed well at high load factors. Port staff have emphasized the strong performance of these routes in conversations with other airlines and are actively working to restore service to the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles markets,” he said.
Rodriguez said since Allegiant decided to suspend Los Angeles and Oakland flights, no carrier has officially announced its intention to restore these routes as of June.
Regarding route suspensions for Bellingham-Los Angeles and Bellingham-Oakland flights, an Allegiant spokesperson described the airlines business model to consider all routes to be seasonal with the airline adjusting routes to match demand.
As of March 2026, Allegiant has a market share of roughly 61% at Bellingham International Airport compared to 53% in March 2016 and 32% in December 2006, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics dashboard. For Q1 2026, the Port reported Allegiant’s market share 62.3% compared to 37.7% for Alaska Airlines. It is unclear how or if the base closure will impact these figures.
Following base closures in Bellingham and Savannah Georgia, Allegiant will operate roughly 20 crew bases across the U.S.
In 2025, Bellingham International Airport had 456,410 passengers travel through the airport.
—By Joshua Kornfeld