How Allegiant Air turned a profit for 39 consecutive quarters

When Allegiant Air started flying to Eugene in May 2007, its share of the market was infinitesimal -- 2.6 percent of arriving and departing passengers. Today, one out of every five passengers that flies in or out of Eugene flies on Allegiant. The airport lost almost 25 percent of its capacity in 2008 when fuel costs skyrocketed, airport Manager Tim Doll said. "We were able to make it through the recession when Allegiant came in and added capacity into the market -- we were getting low-fare service, additional routes throughout the downturn. It helped us attract new passengers, helped us keep passengers who were driving up to Portland and, once a year, they added a route." This month, Allegiant will add two new routes, with direct flights to Palm Springs, Calif., starting Nov. 15 and direct flights to Honolulu starting Nov. 17. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would get nonstop Hawaii service out of Eugene -- we're just not that type of market," Doll said. But Allegiant has created a different model than the major national airlines. The Las Vegas-based airline has a short but dramatic history. It was founded in California in 1997, got into financial trouble a couple of years later and filed for bankruptcy in 2000. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2002 under a new owner, who reinvented it as a low-cost carrier focusing on leisure travelers and moved its hub to Las Vegas. Since then, it has recorded a profit for 39 quarters in a row. Allegiant has earned those profits using a seemingly simple model: Fly direct from