The story
1997–1999: Early history
Allegiant Air was founded in January 1997 by Mitch Allee, the company's owner and chief executive officer; Jim Patterson, president; and Capt. Dave Beadle, chief pilot, under the name WestJet Express. Following a trademark dispute with Westjet Air Center of Rapid City, South Dakota, and because of the name's similarity to WestJet of Canada, the airline adopted the name Allegiant Air. On June 19, 1998, Allegiant received FAA and DOT certification for scheduled and charter domestic operations. The airline also received authority to operate charter service to Canada and Mexico.
Scheduled service began on October 15, 1998, with Douglas DC-9 flights between Las Vegas and the airline's original base in Fresno, California. By August 1999, Allegiant added service to South Lake Tahoe and Burbank. In November, the schedule was cutback to just Las Vegas to Long Beach or Fresno. During this period, Allegiant operated its flights as direct-sale public charters.
2000s
In 2000, Allegiant dropped the public charter designation, resumed flights from South Lake Tahoe, and added service to Portland, Oregon, and Reno.
Higher fuel costs contributed to Allegiant filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2000. The restructuring allowed major creditor Maury Gallagher to take control of the airline. Gallagher had previously worked with Fresno-based WestAir and was among the founders of ValuJet Airlines. Under his leadership, Allegiant adopted a low-cost carrier business model focused on linking smaller cities with Las Vegas while selling bundled air and hotel packages. The airline exited bankruptcy in late 2001, and the case was formally closed in early 2002. During the restructuring, Allegiant relocated its headquarters and operations to Las Vegas.
Allegiant entered into a long-term agreement with Harrah's in March 2002 to provide charter flights to its casinos in Laughlin and Reno. Around the same time, the airline acquired its first McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft. Between 2002 and 2004, Allegiant developed its scheduled-service model around leisure travel from smaller cities to Las Vegas. By 2004, the airline served Las Vegas from 13 small cities and sold bundled vacation packages that combined airfare and hotel accommodations.
Allegiant Travel, the airline's holding company, completed a private equity placement worth $39.5 million in May 2005. The company later filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of a planned initial public offering of common stock. Allegiant raised $94.5 million through the sale of 5.75 million shares priced at $18 each. Shares began trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "ALGT" in December 2006.
By 2006, Allegiant operated a fleet of 21 MD-80 aircraft and served 40 small cities, primarily through Las Vegas and Orlando/Sanford, Florida. The airline opened a fourth operations base at Mesa, Arizona, in October 2007, linking the Phoenix metropolitan area with 14 Allegiant destinations. Mesa joined Las Vegas, Orlando, and Tampa/St. Petersburg as operating bases for the airline. At the time, Allegiant operated 32 aircraft serving 53 destinations. Mesa Gateway Airport later announced a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) terminal expansion that increased the number of gates from two to four and allowed Allegiant to expand service in the Phoenix area.
Allegiant opened its fifth operations base at Fort Lauderdale on November 14, 2007, adding connections between South Florida and other Allegiant destinations. A sixth base opened at Bellingham, Washington, in January 2008. Growth at Bellingham was partly driven by the airport's proximity to Greater Vancouver in British Columbia.
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2010s
In January 2010, the airline celebrated its one-millionth passenger to fly out of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Allegiant's parent company also announced that it had purchased 18 additional used MD-80 aircraft from Scandinavian Airlines. In February 2010, Allegiant opened its ninth base at Grand Rapids' Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Michigan. The airline based two McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft in Grand Rapids, but ended their airport's status in 2011. The airline continues to fly out of Grand Rapids in a reduced capacity.
On July 1, 2010, Allegiant returned to Long Beach Airport (LGB) in Long Beach, California, having previously served LGB with DC-9 jets with nonstop flights to Las Vegas (LAS) and Lake Tahoe (TVL) in 2000. The airline also intended to fly from Bellingham and Stockton several times a week; however, that plan never came to fruition. Allegiant continues to serve Stockton with flights to Las Vegas, Phoenix/Mesa and San Diego. About 16 months later in November 2011, Allegiant closed its Long Beach facility.
In March 2010, Allegiant purchased six used Boeing 757-200 jetliners as part of plans to begin flights to Hawaii, with deliveries from early 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2011. It gained approval for the type with the FAA in July 2011, and then worked with the FAA to obtain the appropriate ETOPS rating in order to be able to serve Hawaii. Allegiant no longer operates service to Hawaii.
In July 2015, Allegiant Air announced that bases would be established at the Asheville Regional Airport and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. In October the same year, it came under Federal Aviation Administration monitoring following several emergency landings and aborted takeoffs involving its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 fleet. In December, WFTS-TV interviewed a former Allegiant mechanic who alleged that maintenance procedures were not consistently followed before aircraft were returned to service. A 2016 investigation by the Tampa Bay Times reported that Allegiant aircraft were four times more likely to experience in-flight failures than aircraft operated by other major U.S. airlines. The newspaper also found that 46 of the airline's 86 aircraft had made emergency landings. At the time, the average age of Allegiant's MD-80 fleet was 29 years. There were also more than 100 serious mechanical incidents between January 2016 and October 2017, including engine failures, cabin smoke incidents, hydraulic leaks, and aborted takeoffs. Allegiant responded that many of the incidents involved its MD-80 fleet, which it was replacing with Airbus A320 family aircraft. The airline also cited the 2016 FAA audit, which found the carrier's safety issues to be "minor" and "non-systemic". Allegiant later stated that it received a "clean bill of health" following a 2016 FAA audit. FAA officials said the airline had returned to the agency's normal five-year inspection cycle.
In August 2017, Allegiant announced that a new base would be established at the Indianapolis International Airport. The base began operations in early 2018. Throughout 2017, the airline flew 12 million passengers on its 99 planes to 120 destinations from California to Florida. In February 2018, Allegiant also announced that a new base would be established at the Destin–Fort Walton Beach Airport. In June 2018, Allegiant added another base at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee. Allegiant retired all of its MD-80 aircraft by November 2018.
In January 2019, Allegiant announced that it would be adding another base at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Allegiant announced that they would be adding an additional base at Des Moines International Airport in Des Moines, Iowa, by November 2019. The base was delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and opened in 2021.
2020s
On February 12, 2021, Allegiant launched flights to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California with eight initial destinations including Boise, Grand Junction, Las Vegas, Medford, Missoula, Provo, Reno/Tahoe, and Spokane.
On August 10, 2021, Allegiant announced that they would be opening two more operating bases at Appleton and Bishop beginning March 2022.
On October 7, 2021, Allegiant began serving non-stop flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Asheville, North Carolina, and Palm Beach, Florida. They would later serve five more, including Punta Gorda, Florida; Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida; and Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona. They serve all of these routes using Airbus A320 family aircraft. During the same year, it entered into a joint venture with Viva Aerobus to expand routes between the United States and Mexico.
In January 2026, Allegiant Travel Company announced an agreement to acquire Sun Country Airlines in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at about $1.5 billion. The agreement was approved by the boards of both companies and expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to approval by Sun Country shareholders and regulatory review by the United States Department of Justice and other authorities. The airlines will continue to operate separately until receiving a single Federal Aviation Administration operating certificate. Following the completion of the merger, the combined airline was expected to operate under the Allegiant name and be headquartered in Las Vegas, with Allegiant chief executive officer Gregory C. Anderson continuing to lead the company and Sun Country chief executive officer Jude Bricker joining the board of directors.
From Wikipedia’s article on Allegiant Air, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7