Allegiant Air - FAA`s sights are set at them once more - Curt Lewis

 

Allegiant Air, with ultra-low fares, draws FAA's attention over safety concerns

Allegiant Air, a budget carrier that advertises fares as low as $29, has found a profitable niche in serving airports in small-to-midsize cities. Its safety and maintenance practices have come under scrutiny after a series of operational incidents. (DAVID BECKER/AP)

Just over a year ago, Allegiant Air pilot Jason Kinzer was sitting in the cockpit of a 24-year-old McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft bound for Hagerstown, Md., having just taken off from St. Petersburg, Fla.

As the plane climbed through 2,500 feet, a cabin attendant alerted Kinzer to a strong burning smell. Alarmed, Kinzer turned Allegiant Air Flight 864 back toward the airport. Fire and rescue crews met the plane on the runway as smoke wafted from an engine. Kinzer told the 144 passengers to disembark. He then helped a flight attendant carry a paraplegic passenger to the exit.

It seemed to be model behavior. But Allegiant Air did not praise Kinzer. It fired him.

In a dismissal letter, the airline called the evacuation of the plane "unwarranted" and faulted Kinzer as not "striving to preserve the Company's assets, aircraft, ground equipment, fuel and the personal time of our employees and customers." Later, the company's attorneys would call Kinzer's account an "inaccurate and self-serving recitation of events."

Kinzer's saga, now the subject of a court case in Nevada, involves one of dozens of incidents that have prompted scrutiny of the safety and maintenance practices at Allegiant Air, a low-cost carrier that has found a profitable niche in serving airports in small-to-midsize cities.

In an industry that has habitually struggled to make money, Allegiant's soaring earnings stand out. Last year, its profits jumped 154 percent, to $220.4 million, as the carrier - relying heavily on cheaper, previously used planes - flew more than 300 routes. In June, Allegiant announced a dozen new routes and three new cities, for the first time competing with major carriers at airports in Newark and Denver.

[Flights are about to become cheaper]

But observers with various interests and viewpoints are asking whether Allegiant has pursued fast growth and financial success at the expense of other considerations.

Unwanted attention has come from federal regulators worried about safety, investors betting against the stock, a pilots union concerned about maintenance, and corporate governance experts who fault the airline's cozy board of directors as not doing more to head off problems.

About 300 pages of Federal Aviation Administration records for Allegiant show a pattern of safety problems that triggered a relatively large number of aborted takeoffs, emergency descents and emergency landings from Jan. 1, 2015, through this March. The Allegiant records were obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Robert MacArthur, owner of Alternative Research Services, a consultancy that caters to short sellers - investors who benefit when company share prices drop.