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Allegiant Air Calls It Quits In Northern Colorado

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) - Allegiant Air brought discount flights from Las Vegas to Northern Colorado. Now the airline is pulling out of the Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport.

The company says it will discontinue service next month but the carrier isn't saying why. The decision came as a shock to airport officials and passengers.

It's soon going to be a bit more difficult for Lois Bailey to come visit her grandchildren in Northern Colorado.

"She picks me up and we just make the rounds with my kids," Bailey said.

"It made us just sad. My grandmother uses it once a year to come see us and it's really convenient to get her over here," Bailey's granddaughter said. "She doesn't have to wait in the lines. It's something we always look forward to, so it's a bummer."

Allegiant Air announced earlier this week that on Oct. 29 they will discontinue service.

"Well, we were obviously taken by surprise," airport manager Jascon Licon said.

Licon said the announcement came out of thin air.

"They've been very tight-lipped about it," he said. "They just called it an internal business decision and that's all the information we were able to gather."

Licon says the budget airline has been operating at the airport for nine years and has been successful.

"A lot of people use this service. We had 90,000 people come in and out of this airport on that airline last year, which was a 27 percent increase from the year prior," he said.

The abrupt departure of the airline could mean a loss of federal and state grants.

"We're talking near $1 million," Licon said.

Now passengers and Licon are hoping another airline will fill the void.

"We're going to see what we can do to try and attract somebody else," Licon said.

"Maybe we can talk them out of this," Bailey said. "You never know how much power we have."

In an email sent to CBS4 Allegiant says any passenger with a ticket after Oct. 29 will be able to get a full refund.

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