Allegiant Air's Rare Feat: Higher Revenue Than 2019 and a Profit
Skift Take
Allegiant Air pulled off a rare pandemic-era feat: It is among the only U.S. airlines to report more revenue compared with the third quarter of 2019, and it turned a profit. But it wasn't all clear skies for the leisure-focused airline. Allegiant discovered the hard way that restoring flights after the cuts of 2020 is easier said than done.
"This industry ran like a Swiss watch in 2019," CEO Maurice Gallagher told analysts during Allegiant's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday afternoon. "But it's almost like we've forgotten how to handle disruptions." During the summer peak in demand, Allegiant, like Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines, cancelled hundreds of flights and left passengers stranded all over the country.
The main issue was labor. Many of the airports Allegiant flies to are in smaller metropolitan areas. Airports weren't staffed up top handle 2019-levels of traffic, and nor was Allegiant. Pilots and crews often were in the wrong city or bumped up against their federal duty-time limits, with no reserve crews to relieve them. Smaller crew bases couldn't keep up with demand. As much as 30 percent of the carrier's staff took Covid-related or other leaves of absence when the Delta variant began to surge. "
