Allegiant Makes You Pay

Allegiant

Allegiant issued their first earnings report since going public today, and there were a couple of interesting tidbits in there worth talking about.

First of all, the amount of ancillary revenue per passenger rose from $13.99 in the fourth quarter of 2005 to $18.84 in the fourth quarter of 2006. What is ancillary revenue? Well it’s all the money they make from sources other than airplane tickets. We’ve talked about this before, but getting every passenger to pay just shy of $20 above and beyond the ticket is pretty impressive. What do they sell to convince each person to shell out the extra dollars?

allegiantancillary

If you go to their website, you’ll see them hawking hotel rooms pretty aggressively. They get a cut each time you book. Want an assigned seat in advance? You’ll pay for that. Need a soda or a snack? Oh yeah, fork over the cash. How about some Vegas or Florida souvenirs? Or a model of an Allegiant plane? Maybe a pillow and blanket? It’s all for sale.

So remember, if you fly Allegiant, you can expect to pay somewhat more than just the price of the ticket.

The second piece of interesting info is that Allegiant may have chosen their newest focus city. At the end of the year, all their flights were from smaller cities into either Las Vegas, Orlando, or St Petersburg/Tampa. Since the beginning of the year, they’ve quietly launched a twice weekly flight between Bellingham (Washington) and Palm Springs. This flight runs through the peak season and ends in April. Could this be the start of more Palm Springs flights?

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