Allegiant loses $184M during airline industry’s ‘most challenging year’

Faced with a devastating drop in tourism, the once-consistently profitable Allegiant Travel Co. ended 2020 in the red.

Allegiant Air’s parent on Wednesday reported a loss of $184.1 million last year, compared with $232.1 million in profit in 2019.

Revenue plunged 46.2 percent to $990.1 million last year for the airline as the coronavirus pandemic upended daily life, kept people home and away from crowds for fear of getting infected, and sparked huge job losses around the country, especially in casino-heavy Las Vegas, where the economy is fueled by tourism.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant, a deep-discount carrier, is known for flying from small, underserved cities to warm-weather vacation spots, usually without competition on its routes.

It booked 17 consecutive profitable years before the pandemic hit.

Allegiant Chairman and CEO Maurice “Maury” Gallagher said in a statement Wednesday that with the end of the fourth quarter, “we completed the most challenging year the industry has faced in its history.”

“We still have a long road ahead to a full recovery, but we are gaining momentum and moving in the right direction,” Gallagher added, noting, among other things, that booking trends “suggest we will continue to see both revenue and load improvements into the first quarter.”

Still, 2020 was a rough year for Allegiant by almost any measure.

The airline carried more than 8.6 million passengers last year, down 42.6 percent from 2019; made nearly 88,000 departures, down 20.4 percent; and sold more than 1.1 million rental car days, down 41.1 percent, according to a securities filing.

Allegiant was by no means alone. The travel and tourism industry overall took a beating last year from COVID-19, losing 4.5 million jobs by the end of 2020, the most of any industry in America, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

Allegiant President John Redmond told analysts in a conference call Wednesday that the carrier plans to grow this year and beyond, saying the market for aircraft acquisitions “has never been better.”

“We have never been more excited about the future potential of the airline,” he said.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.