Allegiant Air Is Bleeding Red Ink So Why Is It Optimistic?
Photo Credit: Allegiant lost a lot of money in the second quarter but is optimistic about the future. Airbus / P. Pigeyre
Skift Take
Allegiant said it saw the "end of history" on March 1, but its focus on domestic, primarily leisure flights gives it cause for optimism. Still, the airline doesn't think a meaningful recovery will occur until sometime next year at the earliest.
Allegiant always has taken pride in being different. When other airlines zigged — adding new premium cabins and beefing up their presence in key business markets — Allegiant zagged — keeping its sights on leisure travel from secondary markets to primarily sun-soaked vacation destinations. And that relentless focus on its core leisure traveler stood it in good stead when the airline industry virtually collapsed in the teeth of the Covid-19 pandemic.
To be sure, it still was a terrible quarter for the historically profitable airline. "We continue to be the best of the worst," CEO Maurice Gallagher told analysts on the company's third-quarter earnings call. The pandemic is a "generational event that has changed how we think," he said. "So it was after March 1 of this year, it was the end our history as we know it."
The airline has not sat still. It expects to furlough up to 130 pilots by November 1, on top of the dozens of employees that have either been laid off or have taken
