Allegiant Air starts service to Sonoma County Airport from Las Vegas, Phoenix

Sonoma County landed a second air carrier at its growing airport on Tuesday, when Allegiant Air announced it would start service from the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport to Las Vegas and the Phoenix area.

Allegiant will begin flying two non-stop flights to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on May 19 and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on May 26, the Las Vegas-based airline announced Tuesday.

“Expanding to new cities and offering new routes is a great way for us to grow our brand of convenient, low-cost travel for millions of travelers. This year we wanted to go above and beyond for our passengers,” Jude Bricker, Allegiant chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Allegiant unveiled its plans to serve Sonoma County while adding 22 new routes to its network and two other new cities - Evansville, Ind., and Albuquerque, N.M.

Allegiant becomes the second commercial airline to serve Sonoma County. Alaska Airlines started providing nonstop flights from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland in 2007, filling a hole left by the 2001 departure of United Express. It added flights to Las Vegas in 2008, but ended the route in 2012 and replaced it with flights to San Diego. Next week, it will start daily service to John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

Last year, Alaska Airlines served 263,142 passengers at the Sonoma County airport, a 10 percent increase from the previous year.

This story will be updated.