is an
American Low Fare Airline , owned by '''Allegiant Travel Co.''' (), headquartered in
Las Vegas ,
Nevada ,
USA . The airline operates scheduled and charter flights from
Focus Cities at Las Vegas'
McCarran International Airport ,
Orlando Sanford International Airport ,
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport , starting October 2007, Mesa's
Williams Gateway Airport , and starting November 2007, from
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport . The airline also offers vacation packages through its
Allegiant Vacations affiliate.
Allegiant Air targets small cities with limited passenger airline service. Some Allegiant destinations are secondary airports that are close to large metropolitan areas; others are small markets with little or no other airline service.
Allegiant Air was founded in 1997 under the name . After a trademark dispute with West Jet Air Center of
Rapid City, South Dakota and with the name's similarity to
WestJet Airlines of
Calgary, Alberta , the airline adopted the name Allegiant Air and received its
Operating Certificate for scheduled and charter domestic operations in 1998. The airline also has authority for charter service to
Canada and
Mexico . Wholly owned by Allegiant Travel, the airline has 432 employees.
Scheduled service began on
October 15 ,
1999 , between Las Vegas and the airline's initial hub in
Fresno, California , with
Douglas DC-9-21 and DC-9-51 aircraft. Shortly after the shut down of
WinAir Airlines , Allegiant Air opened a hub in
Long Beach, California , mirroring WinAir's network. The airline was unable to bring in enough revenue to cover its costs, and filed for
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection on
December 13 ,
2000 .
In June 2001,
Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr. joined the airline and soon became its President and
Chief Executive Officer . Having formerly worked with
WestAir and
ValuJet Airlines , Gallagher led the airline's transformation into its present form, moving the base to Las Vegas and focusing on smaller markets that larger airlines did not serve. From 2001, they have grown from 2 destinations to over 50 from Las Vegas,
Orlando/Sanford, Florida , and
St Petersburg, Florida
On
November 20 ,
2006 , Allegiant Air announced that it had filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in anticipation of a planned initial public offering of its Common Stock. The company plans to list its shares on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol "ALGT".
On
July 31 ,
2007 , the airline announced plans to open a fourth
Focus City from
Williams Gateway Airport in
Mesa, Arizona , connecting the Phoenix metropolitan area to 13 destinations already served by Allegiant, which are set to begin
October 25 ,
2007 .
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On
August 1 ,
2007 , Allegiant also announced plans to open their fifth
Focus City and make an operations base at
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport , connecting the
South Florida area to destinations already served by Allegiant. The airline has stated the focus city will open
November 14 ,
2007 .
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Allegiant Vacations functions as an in house package vacation vendor. The company has arrangements with 34 hotel properties in Las Vegas and 21 in the
Orlando and
Daytona Beach, Florida areas. The vacations division also has partnerships with several rental car agencies and show-ticket Vendors.
See Also: Allegiant Air destinations
Allegiant Air currently flies to 55 destinations throughout the
United States . Upcoming schedule changes will increase their destination count to 60 when the airline starts service to
Huntsville, Alabama on September 21,
Phoenix /
Mesa, Arizona on October 25,
Bangor, Maine on November 1,
Fort Lauderdale, Florida on November 14, and
Plattsburgh, New York on November 16, 2007. All bookings begin or end at one of the five focus cities/operational bases, therefore, travel reservations between any of the other cities must be reserved through separate bookings and checked luggage be claimed and re-checked in one of the five focus cities.
The airline will add
Phoenix /
Mesa, Arizona as a focus city/operational base on
October 25 ,
2007 , and
Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a focus city/operational base on
November 14 ,
2007 .
As of September 2007, Allegiant Air has 30 aircraft in its fleet consisting of:
Allegiant Air Fleet Detail
As of September 2007, the average age of the Allegiant Air fleet was 17.2 years.
Allegiant Air Fleet Age
On
March 29 ,
2007 , Allegiant Air Flight 758, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft which took off from
Pease International Airport in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire , experienced a hydraulic failure which prevented the front landing gear from deploying. As a result, the aircraft circled in a holding pattern for over half an hour to lighten the fuel load, and then made an emergency landing at
Orlando Sanford International Airport . Upon landing, some sparks and smoke were observed under the nose of the aircraft. The passengers and crew members evacuated via emergency evacuation slides. Only one injury was reported; a woman suffered a minor ankle injury during the evacuation, but she refused treatment. The airport was closed for some time due to the emergency.
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Allegiant currently has two contracts for track programs with
Harrah's Entertainment . Two aircraft are provided, one based in
Reno, Nevada and the other in
Laughlin, Nevada , bringing customers from cities across the United States to the Harrah's Nevada casinos. Allegiant markets its charter services to a variety of customers in need of on demand charter services, such as university athletic teams, corporations, and governments.
