Allegiant’s Gallagher rings Nasdaq’s bell

Perhaps showcasing a successful, scandal-free company is in order.
 
That could be what managers of the Nasdaq market were thinking when they pegged Allegiant Travel Company President and CEO Maurice Gallagher to preside over the ringing of the opening bell Wednesday morning.
 
The Las Vegas-based company is the parent of Allegiant Air, an airline that specializes in moving small town tourists to Las Vegas, Florida and Arizona.
 
Allegiant is the only U.S. mainline carrier to post a profit in every quarter of 2008.
 
Allegiant is also known for paying relatively modest salaries to executives, who work in cubicles in the main office alongside all the other employees.

Those characteristics make Allegiant a good symbol for the beleaguered market, considering other Nasdaq news of late.
 
At the end of January the Nasdaq composite index was down nearly 39 percent from a year ago. Recently disgraced investment manager Bernard Madoff is also a former Nasdaq chairman, a sour topping on the market's sundae of gloom that was 2008.

Gallagher will be joined by the Blue Man Group, which has a marketing partnership with Allegiant, and Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the.