Las Vegas-based Allegiant cancels flights as Irma nears Florida

Allegiant Air canceled 256 flights between Thursday and Sunday, affecting 31,387 passengers as Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida, airline officials said.

Although costs were not yet calculated, the Las Vegas-based budget carrier is bracing for a serious financial blow over the next several days, as more than half of Allegiant’s planes and passengers fly to Florida as a vacation destination.

“Obviously, we’re not going to fly when it’s not safe for our passengers, our staff and our air crew,” Allegiant spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said.

Allegiant canceled 10 flights on Thursday, with plans to cancel another 40 on Friday.

The carrier has already scrubbed all flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday going in and out of Florida airports in Punta Gorda, St. Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville and Sanford/Orlando.

The carrier does not plan to reschedule any of those flights. However, airline passengers traveling through any of those cities can request a one-time change to their travel plans without paying extra fees.

Airline executives will spend the next several days huddled in a conference room at Allegiant’s headquarters in Las Vegas to keeping an eye on flights and weather patterns, Grey said.

Five outbound flights were added to Allegiant’s schedule this week to shuttle airline employees and passengers out of Irma’s path.

Additionally, about 1,200 Allegiant employees based in Florida were allowed to tend to their homes and families to prepare for the hurricane, Grey said. Another 30 Allegiant crew members from the West Coast were sent to Florida to keep operations going and reposition about 40 planes to other airports across the country.

Airports in Florida could reopen as soon as Tuesday, depending on the severity of Hurricane Irma’s damage.

“It’s a big puzzle on how you shut down operations and make sure passengers and crew members are safe in an event like this,” Grey said.

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.