Don’t Count Out Allegiant Air’s Septuagenarian CEO in This Crisis
Photo Credit: An Allegiant Air Airbus jet in Las Vegas. The market is one of the most important for the discount airline. Flickr / Tomas Del Coro
Skift Take
Is it prudent to travel for leisure? Perhaps not. But is that stopping people from traveling? No, it is not. So Allegiant Air and its CEO Maury Gallagher figure it might as well benefit.
On recent earnings calls, Allegiant Air CEO Maury Gallagher almost seemed bored. Over more than two decades, he built one of the world's most successful ultra-low-cost carriers, but by 2019, Allegiant had nearly run out of obvious markets to make the profit margins investors had come to expect.
Between August 2015, and January 2020, Allegiant's stock fell 21 percent, as analysts questioned whether the company had hit its ceiling. Having built a profitable franchise flying travelers from small U.S. cities to popular vacation destinations, Allegiant expanded to larger markets, where there was more competition and, in some cases, smaller margins. It also made some forays into non-airline businesses — investments that generally did not go well.
[caption id="attachment_391006" align="alignright" width="300"] Maury Gallagher Allegiant Air CEO.[/caption]
But speaking Tuesday on Allegiant's first quarter earnings call, Gallagher seemed more animated. The U.S. airline industry is in
