Allegiant Air Opens Trenton to Orlando Sanford Oct. 2

Allegiant Air opens a nonstop from Trenton-Mercer Airport to Orlando Sanford International on October 2, 2026. It is the fourth Florida destination the carrier flies from the Ewing, New Jersey field since it returned there in February.

The route was one of eight the airline announced on May 19, 2026, all of them starting in the fall. Tickets have been on sale since that day, and the introductory pricing that came with the announcement is long gone. Our Allegiant Air guide covers the bag fees and seat charges that decide what one of these fares actually costs.

Sanford Is Not Orlando International

This is the single most important thing to settle before you book. Orlando Sanford International, code SFB, is a separate airport northeast of the city. Orlando International, code MCO, is the large airport most people picture when they think of flying to Orlando.

Allegiant has built much of its Florida network on secondary fields like Sanford, Punta Gorda and St. Pete-Clearwater precisely because they are cheaper to operate into. The saving is real and it shows up in the fare. The trade is the drive at the other end, plus a narrower set of rental car and rideshare options than you get at MCO.

If your destination is a theme park hotel, check the shuttle situation from Sanford specifically before you assume the transfer you used last time still applies. Many Orlando area transfer services are built around MCO.

The $59 Fare Has Already Expired

Announcement fares are a marketing window, not a price. Allegiant’s own terms on this release are unusually blunt about it. The $59 one way on the Trenton to Sanford route had to be purchased by May 19, 2026, the same day the route was announced, and it only covered travel between October 2 and October 16, 2026.

The same applies to the 1,000 bonus Allways Rewards points the airline attached to the new routes. That offer required booking between May 19 and June 18, 2026, for travel through February 9, 2027. Both of those doors are closed.

What survives is the route itself, which is the part that actually matters for a trip you are planning now. Fares on it will behave like any other Allegiant leisure route, which usually means the cheapest seats sit on the least convenient days.

Trenton Has Quietly Become a Real Option Again

Allegiant flew three Florida routes out of Trenton for two years and cut them in April 2018, leaving Frontier as the only scheduled carrier there. The airline came back in February 2026, and the airport now lists Allegiant alongside Frontier on its own destination page for Fort Lauderdale, the Fort Myers and Punta Gorda area, and the Tampa and St. Pete area.

Adding Sanford makes four. That is a meaningful shift for anyone in Mercer, Bucks or Burlington County who has been defaulting to Philadelphia or Newark for a Florida week.

Trenton-Mercer also carries a third option that is easy to miss. American Airlines runs a Landline motorcoach between Trenton and Philadelphia International, three departures each way per day, with bags checked through and security screening done at Trenton. That is a connecting product rather than a flight, but it means the airport is useful for more than Florida.

What Allegiant Said About the Expansion

Drew Wells, the airline’s chief commercial officer, framed the eight new routes around availability rather than growth for its own sake. He said the additions “ensure that affordable fares can remain available to consumers despite industry changes”, and that the company aims to offer service “where it is needed most”.

Read against the map, that is consistent with what Allegiant has done all year. It has cut Florida routes in some markets while adding them in others, a pattern we covered when the airline left seven airports and dropped 61 routes. A new route from a small airport is not a promise of permanence, and the first season is usually the test.