US’s Allegiant earns $335mn in share issue

Allegiant Air (G4, Las Vegas McCarran) parent Allegiant Travel has entered into an underwriting agreement with Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley relating to the offer, issuance, and sale by the company of 1,552,500 shares of its common stock, it revealed in a stock exchange filing. The travel and hospitality company issued the shares on May 10 and reaped proceeds amounting to around USD335.1 million, after deducting underwriter discounts and before deducting fees and estimated expenses. Allegiant Travel had announced the public offering on May 5, when it priced 1,350,000 shares at USD219 per share, for estimated aggregate gross proceeds of USD295.65 million. The day after announcing the results, Allegiant Air revealed plans on May 11 to hire 184 pilots in the coming months, an increase of nearly 19% on its current roster of about 1,000 pilots. It described the step as part of its “growth strategy to meet increasing demand for air travel.” The first group of pilots will begin training in July, with classes scheduled to run every few weeks until early 2022. “As states have eased pandemic restrictions and the Covid-19 vaccine has rolled out across the country, demand for travel has rebounded,” the leisure-focussed carrier said. Onboarding new pilots and cabin crew, as well as “adding aircraft to our fleet and new bases, cities, and routes to our network,” are part of a “five-year growth plan” at the company, it elaborated. As previously reported, in October 2020, the low-cost carrier furloughed 100 pilots despite improved liquidity from the sale of bonds and steady improvements in bookings. Allegiant Air currently operates thirty-five A319-100s and seventy-five A320-200s, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. All but thirteen of the A320s are owned by the company. As of the week starting May 17, the LCC operated 361 routes, all of them domestic, according to the ch-aviation capacities module. On May 12, Allegiant said it was relocating its operations at Los Angeles Int’l, one of its 19 bases, to Terminal 1 from May 19, a move that as the summer season approaches will allow it to locate a fourth A320 at the airport. It currently operates ten routes out of Los Angeles.