AviationGeeks.com - Allegiant Air

Owner: Allegiant Travel Group

Headquarters: Las Vegas

CEO: Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr.

Year founded: 1997

First flight: June, 1998

Stock symbol: ALGT

Net profit in 2007: 76 million

Number of employees: 1,300

Major Hubs: Bellingham, Fort Lauderdale, Grand Rapids, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando, Orlando Sanford, Phoenix, Myrtle Beach, St. Petersburg

Main fleet: McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series

Fleet size: 49 (21 on order)

Average age of fleet: 20 years

Allegiant Air was originally founded as WestJet Express in 1997, but due to trademark dispute with West jet Air Center in South Dakota and WestJet Airlines in Calgary, the name was changed to Allegiant Air. It received its operating certificate for domestic operation in 1998 and in October the following year Allegiant started scheduled flight between Las Vegas and Fresno with a McDonnell Douglas DC-9.

In December, 2000, Allegiant filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. In 2001, Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr. took over as President and CEO of Allegiant. Gallagher managed to turn to airline into profit by moving its home base from Fresco to Las Vegas and focusing on routes that were underserved by mainstream airlines. In 2006, Allegiant had initial public offering on its common shares with symbol ALGT.

Markets

Allegiant Air has built its business around 10 focus cities (hubs). Those focus cities are:

Los Angeles International Airport

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

Orlando International Airport

Orlando-Sanford International Airport

Myrtle Beach International Airport

Bellingham International Airport (Whatcom County, Washington)

Gerald R. Ford International Airport (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas)

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport

Allegiant has focused on serving smaller airports which are underserved by the big airlines. It only faces competition on five of 130 routs. Leisure passengers travelling to season location are its main market. Allegiant offer low prices by keeping its operating cost low and receives considerable share of its income from ancillary revenues. Allegiant flies to 71 destinations from its 10 hub airports.

Fleet

Allegiant has its fleet in all-economy configuration. The fleet consists of the following aircrafts:

Allegiant has the following aircrafts on order: