Allegiant cancels deal to purchase Airbus A319 jets
Allegiant Travel Co. on Friday terminated a deal announced in July to purchase 10 Airbus A319 jets.
The planes were intended to move the Las Vegas-based company's Allegiant Air unit to a new generation of planes and spur growth. In a statement, the company said the transaction with Cebu Air Pacific was called off "as a result of the parties' failure to satisfy certain conditions to proceeding with the transaction," but no specifics were disclosed.
The deal was announced in July, along with the lease of nine other A319s from another source that will proceed.
Some of the projected route network growth that the Cebu planes were supposed to handle will be covered by pushing seven of nine A320 aircraft, the purchase of which was announced Dec. 19, into service more quickly than planned. The previous plan had called for bringing four Cebu plans into the fleet next year and the other six in 2014.
Shares of Allegiant Travel Co. rose 9 cents, or 0.12 percent, on Friday to $72.37 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Raymond James analyst Jim Park said the Cebu deal's cancellation won't affect Allegiant Travel's profits.
