22-05-2025
Gulf Shores makes history with first-ever commercial flight to Alabama's beaches
GULF SHORES, Ala. (WKRG) — Gulf Shores, prepare for landing because commercial flights have officially landed at the Gulf Shores International Airport, and travel to the Alabama coast just got a whole lot easier.
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Allegiant Airlines Flight 1403 from Knoxville, Tennessee, celebrated with a water cannon welcome. It marks the first time in history that a commercial flight has landed in Gulf Shores.
'It was great,' Todd Binkley, a passenger from Tennessee aboard the flight, said. 'This is a great welcome to a great place.'
'It's a really cool experience,' Paisley Carroll, another passenger from Tennessee, said. 'I never done something like this.'
The city's partnership with Allegiant Air will offer nonstop flights from Gulf Shores to eight different cities, meaning fewer road trips and more air travel for beach goers.
These direct flights from the Gulf Shores International Airport include:
Knoxville
Des Moines
Green Bay
St. Louis
Kansas City
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Cincinnati
Houston
'For a lot of people, especially throughout the Midwest, they've been coming here for years and they've been driving here,' Allegiant Air Vice President Kristen Schilling-Gonzales said. 'So to be able to offer this nonstop opportunity where you can save 12 hours in the car by just getting on a short plane ride, I'd say that's fantastic.'
While some passengers aboard this flight said they were thrilled to be a part of this historic moment, others said they had no idea until they landed.
'I didn't have any idea. I knew this was the first time Allegiant was flying to Gulf Shores,' Binkley said. 'So when they sent us off out of Knoxville and we got here, we couldn't believe it, felt like celebrities getting off an airplane.'
This flight might have made history, but officials with the airline told News 5 this is just the start of commercial flights coming in and out of Gulf Shores.
'We announced the two new routes today, and I really hope that that's just the beginning of a long-term partnership,' Schilling-Gonzales said. 'The more people who are flying, the more that we want to add routes.'
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One flight down with many more in this city's future.
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