Allegiant Travel Company to Purchase Six Boeing 757 Aircraft

Company Plans to Say 'Aloha' to Hawaii

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Mar 05, 2010, 05:38 ET

LAS VEGAS, March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Allegiant Travel Company (Nasdaq: ALGT) today announced it has signed a forward purchase agreement to acquire six Boeing 757-200 aircraft. The introduction of the 757 aircraft will enable Allegiant to expand its leisure travel strategy into Hawaii with flights to be operated by Allegiant Air, LLC, its airline subsidiary.

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Allegiant plans to take delivery of these aircraft and place them in service with Allegiant Air on the following schedule:

Two aircraft delivered within the next two months to be placed into service in the fourth quarter of 2010
One aircraft delivered in November 2010 and another in January 2011 to be placed into service in the first half of 2011
Two aircraft delivered in the fourth quarter of 2011 with planned in-service dates in the first half of 2012

The six 757 aircraft are sister-ships and have been in service with a single European operator since original delivery from Boeing. The aircraft come equipped for extended twin-engine operations (ETOPS), as required for long overwater flights.

Allegiant expects to spend between $75 to 90 million through 2012 acquiring and preparing this fleet for service. While Allegiant is able to acquire and prepare the aircraft for cash, it believes it will finance some portion of the purchase.

Allegiant is acquiring this fleet with the express purpose of serving Hawaii, a major leisure destination that it cannot serve with its existing MD-80 fleet. Allegiant Air expects to launch service to Hawaii once appropriate regulatory requirements have been met.

Allegiant CEO & Chairman Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. commented, "Hawaii is the most prominent U.S. leisure destination currently un-served by Allegiant and our small city customers have been requesting this service. We are very optimistic about our ability to exploit the large third party ancillary revenue opportunity we believe exists in Hawaii. We expect the sale of hotels, rental cars, and many attraction and activities popular with Hawaii visitors will provide a very meaningful contribution to the success of the service."

"The 757 is a new aircraft type for Allegiant but we otherwise see this program as consistent with our existing business model," Allegiant President and CFO, Andrew C. Levy, stated. "This transaction will enable Allegiant to extend to Hawaii its strategy of serving large leisure destinations from smaller cities with no existing nonstop service."

Allegiant Air currently operates 46 MD-80 aircraft and the 757 program will not affect its MD-80 growth plans. Allegiant expects to have 54 aircraft in service by the end of 2010 – 52 MD-80 aircraft and two 757 aircraft.

About the Company

Las Vegas based Allegiant Travel Company (Nasdaq: ALGT), is focused on linking travelers in small cities to world-class leisure destinations such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Orlando, Fla. Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Through its subsidiary, Allegiant Air, the Company operates a low-cost, high-efficiency, all-jet passenger airline offering air travel both on a stand-alone basis and bundled with hotel rooms, rental cars and other travel related services. ALGT/G

Note: This press release was accurate at the date of issuance. However, information contained in the release may have changed. If you plan to use the information contained herein for any purpose, verification of its continued accuracy is your responsibility.

For further information please visit the company's investor web site: http://ir.allegianttravel.com

Reference to the Company's web site above does not constitute incorporation of any of the information thereon into this press release.

Under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are only estimates or predictions based on our management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Forward-looking statements include our statements regarding delivery and service dates for aircraft under contract, the cost to ready these aircraft for service the ability to secure financing on aircraft, future service to be offered, ability to obtain regulatory approvals, fleet growth, as well as other information regarding the aircraft under contract. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate", "project", "hope" or similar expressions.

Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Important risk factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements generally may be found in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. These risk factors include, without limitation, the effect of the economic downturn on leisure travel, increases in fuel prices, terrorist attacks, risks inherent to airlines, demand for air services to our leisure destinations from the markets served by us, our ability to implement our growth strategy, possible unionization efforts, our dependence on our leisure destination markets, our ability to add, renew or replace gate leases, our competitive environment, problems with our aircraft, dependence on fixed fee customers, our reliance on our automated systems, economic and other conditions in markets in which we operate, governmental regulation, increases in maintenance costs and cyclical and seasonal fluctuations in our operating results.

Any forward-looking statements are based on information available to us today and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of future events, new information or otherwise.

SOURCE Allegiant Travel Company