Allegiant 4Q, 2011 full-year earnings decline on high fuel costs

Allegiant MD-80. By Rob Finlayson

Allegiant Travel Co., parent of the airline, reported a fourth-quarter 2011 net profit of $10.8 million, down 12.7% over $12.4 million earned in the year-ago period. Net income for the full year fell 24.8% to $49.4 million from $65.7 million in the year-ago period.

Allegiant chairman and CEO Maurice Gallagher said that “while fuel put a dent in the operating results for the year, we made excellent progress in our ongoing projects including introduction of our 757 aircraft, beginning our 166-seat conversion and automation upgrades.”

Revenues for the fourth quarter rose 19.7% to $194 million with expenses up 23.1% to $174 million. Operating income declined 3.2% to $20.2 million from $20.9 million the year before.

SVP and CFO Scott Sheldon said that fuel, maintenance and depreciation expense “continued to place pressure on our cost structure during the fourth quarter of 2011. Our fuel cost per passenger increased nearly $9, or 19.7%, to $54 during the quarter.”

Full-year revenues rose 17.4% to $779.1 million while expenses rose 24.1% to $693.7 million, producing an operating income of $85.4 million, down 18.4% in 2010.

Scheduled traffic for the year rose 2% to 5.3 billion RPMs, on a 1% increase in capacity to 5.8 billion ASMs, producing a load factor of 91.7%, up 0.9 points compared to 2010. Scheduled service yield rose 18% to 9.69 cents. Total RASM was 12.5 cents, up 15.4%. Cost per ASM was 10.9 cents, up 21.8%.  CASM ex-fuel climbed 12.9% to 5.70 cents.

Gallagher said the company expects to have “at least 16 166-seat MD-80 aircraft in service by the end of the first quarter 2012 (ATW Daily News, Nov. 14, 2011), and we are on track with our forecast for ETOPS certification later this year, which will allow us to begin our Hawaii service.”