Rising fuel prices affect Allegiant Travel revenues

As Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel Co. trims its flying time in the face of rising fuel prices, passenger growth has largely stopped.

During April, the number of passengers buying seats on scheduled service for the company's discount airline, Allegiant Air, rose 0.8 percent from a year ago to 488,000 as the amount of flying measured in available seat-miles dropped 2.1 percent. This meant that the load factor, the airline term for occupancy rate, rose by 0.9 points to 91.4 percent.

However, when charter service is included, the number of passengers rose 2.9 percent, to 520,000, and available seat-miles remained flat.

Allegiant has followed industry trends by raising fares several times in recent months to try to offset higher fuel costs. As a result, the company estimates that the revenue from passengers for each seat-mile will jump about 24 percent in April.

Since December, the price Allegiant pays for jet fuel has risen 35 percent, to $3.54 a gallon on scheduled service.