January 16, 2007

CNBC and Allegiant

CNBC had a great story on Allegiant, their IPO and their successul business model. CEO Gallagher even stated that he sees Allegiant flying into 50 additional small cities. The focus of the story showed flights out of our role model, Rockford.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why did Allegiant leave. They sound like the perfect airline for Worcester. Can we get them back? Let's hope so.

Anonymous said...

Pete, give City Hall a call and ask them why Allegiant left.

Bill Randell said...

Pete:

One of the questions that we have asked several times on this blog is that we should try to figure out why Allegiant left ORH..

Whatever the reason is, I do not know what is still, but lets accept it and correct it. This has become especially important, since Allegiant has not only not left any other city (except Stewart because of the entrance of JetBlue and Airtran), but now they want to add 50 other cities after their IPO !!!!! If you were SkyValue, would you come to ORH when Allegiant could not make money here?? No way!!!

Can we get Allegiant back?? I think they are worth are try, but not knowing why they left makes it kind of difficult to figure out how to get them back.....

In the end, Alllegiant is still the best fit for ORH compared to any other commercial airline out there. Not being able to make Allegiant be profitable here sends a very loud message to other carriers and will make it very difficult (in the short term) for any other carrier to take a chance on ORH.

Losing Allegiant was a huge loss.. Right now we soud, versus trying to recruit another airline, figure out why they lost money here and get them back... Imagine if we could get Allegiant back to ORH and have them stay (make money)??

Now that would be a positive message and help us attract other airlines!!!

Bill

Anonymous said...

...and Allegiant's stock keeps going up, up and up...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ALGT&t=3m

Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA

Anonymous said...

I think the chances for Allegiant returning are low. But, with Allegiant looking for 50 more cities (as they only serve small-medium sized), Worcester has a chance. But for them to do this, they need to look at the possible reasons as to why Allegiant left and correct them. They claimed to leave because of fuel costs. Let's see here, how do we solve this problem................lower the fuel costs? Also, the name change would attract more, but why hasn't it been changed yet? This has been hovering around for a few months now. With Allegiant becoming a larger name in aviation and with improved efforts from the city, Allegiant would, more likely than not, be more successful the second time around...................that is if we can get a second chance.

Bill Randell said...

Dave and everyone else:


Getting Allegiant to come back here, after they left, and having them make money would be a coup..

Problem, as I see it, is that the things that were said after Allegiant left would make it extremely difficult(if not impossible) to get them back.

At the same time, why not try??? We have nothing to lose....

Anonymous said...

agreed....................we have nothing to lose

Anonymous said...

Allegiant announced they are leaving S. Carolina today

Anonymous said...

Jim:

Which South Carolina airport are they leaving? According to this article they are ADDING flights:

Allegiant Air adding flights to Tampa Bay area
Three weekly flights going to St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport

Published: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 6:00 am


By Jenny Munro
BUSINESS WRITER
jmunro@greenvillenews.com


What's your view? Click here to add your comment to this story.

Two months after it began service to the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, low-fare carrier Allegiant Air announced a second non-stop Florida destination -- the Tampa Bay area.

The Las Vegas-based airline, which now flies to the Orlando area, said it was adding three weekly flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. The flights will arrive at GSP at 2:50 p.m. and leave the airport at 3:25 p.m.

Delta Air Lines, which previously offered non-stop service to Tampa, ceased the service earlier this month, airport officials said.

Gary Jackson, GSP executive director, said, Tampa is the 8th most popular destination from GSP.
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"I think this will be a good market for Allegiant Air," he said.

"Any low-cost flights are good for us," said Amy Dunbar, who was meeting a friend flying in from Detroit. "Maybe if Allegiant does good, another one like Southwest will decide to come here. Anyway, flying to Florida on the cheap sounds good."

Allegiant Air plans to begin the new service on Feb. 13. Introductory fares of $39 for a one-way trip can be purchased through Feb. 10 and used through June 10, said Eric Woodson, director of marketing and sales for Allegiant.

Normal fares will begin at $59 for a one-way ticket, he said.

Reservations may be made at Allegiant Air's web site, www.allegiantair.com, its reservation number at 702-505-8888 or through travel agents. Quoted fairs do not include security fees or convenience fees when booking online or by phone.

The airline flies a fleet of 25 130-seat MD-80 jets that are based at Sanford International Airport near Orlando, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

Woodson estimated the low-cost tickets could increase the Upstate-Tampa market by 50 percent.

Allegiant's reception in the Upstate is part of the reason the airline decided to add service. Woodson said flights out of GSP average a passenger load of 85 percent.

The third destination served by Allegiant is Las Vegas.

"We don't have any plans for service to Las Vegas right now," Woodson said. "Hopefully, someday we can add that. Our planes just don't have the capability to fly that far non-stop."

But "GSP is certainly on the radar screen for us," he said.

Although Allegiant is a niche airline, serving primarily a leisure-travel market, the low-cost carrier is good for GSP, Jackson said.

"When a low-fare carrier comes in here, you can see the results," he said, adding that he expects the airport to show a slight increase in passengers after the first quarter of Allegiant service.

The airport's busiest year was 2005, the year low-cost carrier Independence Air, provided service to GSP. The airline went into bankruptcy and halted service last January.

The airport released its passenger traffic statistics for December and 2006 on Tuesday. December traffic totaled 130,748 passengers departing and arriving at GSP, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier. Annual statistics showed a decline of 14.7 percent, to 1,528,979 passengers flowing through the terminal from 1,792,597 in all of 2005.




Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA

Anonymous said...

Columbia

Bill Randell said...

the only chance we have of getting Allegiant back is if another mgmt company took over (MassPort).