3 Links I Love: Allegiant and the FAA Get Hammered, Rolls Royce Has Engine Problems Yet Again

Allegiant, Sun Country

This week’s TWO featured links:
I decided to feature two links this week, because they shine light on two sides of the same coin…

Allegiant Air: The Budget Airline Flying Under the Radar60 Minutes
In case you missed it, 60 Minutes ran a scathing half-hour piece on Allegiant’s safety issues last Sunday. It makes the FAA look pretty bad too. Now the question is… how much is right? Had Allegiant bothered to actually comment on the story, maybe some of the inaccuracies could have been resolved easily. But no, Allegiant inexplicably wouldn’t talk to 60 Minutes, and that instantly made the airline look guilty in the public eye. After the story went live, Allegiant finally woke up…

Personal message from Allegiant CEO Maury GallagherYouTube
Here’s a video from CEO Maury Gallagher that was uploaded on Tuesday talking about the report. He refutes some of what was in there, and I’ve talked to people who have been crunching the numbers. It’s not easy getting to some of the exact data points mentioned in the story, so I don’t quite know what to believe and what not to believe. But as they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire (inappropriate pun intended). There are issues here in one form or another.

Either way, I don’t think this hurts Allegiant in the long run. People will still keep buying tickets because it’s cheap and in many cases, it’s the only nonstop option. Oh, and did I mention it’s cheap?

One for the road:
FAA imposes restrictions on Boeing 787s powered by some Rolls enginesThe Seattle Times
Remember when Rolls Royce had those A380 engine problems? Well, now it’s time for the 787s to have trouble. No US airlines are impacted since they don’t have Rolls onboard, but British Airways, Norwegian, and ANA all do. And now they have to fly closer to alternate airports while this gets worked out.

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11 comments on “3 Links I Love: Allegiant and the FAA Get Hammered, Rolls Royce Has Engine Problems Yet Again

  1. How far does the FAA order reach? Is it a case where the worldwide regulators will follow suit? Or does this only apply to foreign flight to/from the US?

  2. CBS picked a lot of old events to create a story that may or may not have reflected current reality at Allegiant. It wasn’t productive to try to argue with CBS’ take because, while some of it was true, Allegiant has improved. It is kind of hard to admit that you had problems in the past but they are fixed – you WERE right but aren’t now.

    With all due respect for all involved, the WN accident was the best thing to help squash criticism of Allegiant. Not only is it becoming apparent that WN pushed back on more frequent and faster inspections of fan blades which were recommended as a result of the previous WN engine failure less than 2 years ago (WN wanted a 2 year time period to do the inspections) but that the FAA’s rulemaking process was slowed down beyond that of the European safety regulator. That doesn’t look good for the FAA or WN with a very different outcome than what took place at Allegiant.

  3. I didn’t watch the Allegiant hit piece (because I’m not 95yrs old and don’t watch Matlock, Murder She Wrote & 60 Minutes). Kidding aside, I’m kinda doubting it was a expose on the D-check teardowns for ALGT’s aging fleet. They have the oldest fleet in the US but in all fairness every airline sends their aircraft out of the US for D-checks – often to 3rd world countries where the mechanics can’t even speak or read English, the language all the maintenance manuals are in. I’d very much like that little know fact get more media attention. Crickets…

  4. Regarding Allegiant, didn’t the Tampa Bay Times do the same story about a year ago? Didn’t see much new in the CBS report.

  5. I’m sorry, they serve Wisconcin Meat Sticks….extremley chewey Wisconcin Meat sticks in a fancy pack. For that right there, they should be forgiven and people should fly them.

  6. There’s a lot of less than accurate reporting about airlines and other businesses in the U.S. I’m guessing that a lot of reporters get “stuck” reporting on travel and airlines.

  7. I would fly on Southwest’s unrepaired airplane from Flight 1380 before I would set foot on any Allegiant aircraft, regardless of cost.  Even before Sunday’s 60 Minutes piece, I have heard first-person stories.  One is too many.
    Nope.  Not me.

  8. I’m with Cranky. This is highly unlikely to cause Allegiant much damage long term. If any. The public will look the other way and forgive and forget a lot. A LOT. When it comes to saving a buck and taking their little 1500 mile trips to lay on the beach. Unfortunately it usually takes a catastrophic event such as a no survivors crash to actually get people to change their habits. And even then, the effect is usually short lived. Look at the mess ValuJet was. That didn’t stop the public from flocking to them. Nope. It took #592. And the parallel here is all the more striking considering an ex VJ exec is at the helm here. He’s definitely betting that the cost of any potential liability, lawsuits, and short term loss of business will still be outweighed by the savings of using junky old planes and cutting corners on maintenance.

    So far, the strategy has been paying off handsomely.

  9. I suspect the problem with the Trent 1000 pack C engines will cost RR over a billion dollars when all said and done. Given that jet engine manufacturers make money on service contracts and not the engines themselves RR probably won’t be profitable for many years.

    Allegiance will crap out when it kills passengers; just a matter of time.

  10. As Cranky says, reports about safety concerns will have minimal impact on the public’s buying decisions if the ticket price is right and the non-stops are tempting.

    However, history shows us there is one thing that will will impact the public’s buying decisions: a large-scale accident (or string of smaller accidents) resulting in many deaths.

    Hopefully it never comes to that.

  11. PLEASE stop citing articles [B-787 RR engine AD] published by financially-challenged The Seattle Times.  There are much more authoritative sources available.  Please also check that sites CF refers YOUR loyal readers to respect Ad Blocker users….Instead of sites insisting we ‘subscribe’ to a newspaper valued only(?) for wrapping dead fish at Seattle’s Pike Place Market.  After living here fifty (50) years  R.I.P. The Seattle Times  A Kindred SpiritNorman L Wherrett Jr

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