Allegiant Travel Company announced on Wednesday a 46.1 percent increase in fourth quarter net income to $60.5M versus Q4 2018. For the full year, the airline reported a net income of $232.1M, a year-over-year increase of 43.4 percent.
Today, the Allegiant Travel Company, parent of Allegiant Airlines announced their 68th consecutive profitable quarter. For the fourth quarter, the company reported a 46.1 percent increase in net income to $60.5M or fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.72. For the full year, Allegiant reported a 43.4 percent year-over-year increase in net income to $232.1M or a fully diluted EPS of $14.26. In Wednesday’s announcement, Allegiant Travel Company’s Chairman and CEO, Lawrence J. Gallagher said in part,
“I am very happy to report our 68th consecutive profitable quarter and another profitable year. The airline group successfully grew operating margin from 15 percent in 2018 to over 21 percent in 2019. Our success is very much tied to the efforts of our valued team members, who this year have also voted Allegiant as one of the top 100 Best Places to Work according to Glassdoor’s national survey. We are committed to investing in our people and are happy to report that profit sharing payments to our employees company-wide are up nearly 80 percent from 2018. We could not achieve these outstanding financial and operational results without our dedicated team members, and I thank them for another truly extraordinary year.”
In today’s financial report, Mr. Gallagher continued,
“The highlights below show what a remarkable year we had in 2019, post our transition to our all-Airbus fleet. This transition is working as expected regarding both operations and profitability. We had an excellent operational quarter and year, averaging $6.3 million of EBITDA per aircraft this year, as predicted. We recently announced 44 new routes in the coming months – the largest network expansion in company history – which will bring us to more than 500 routes served. We truly are becoming a national brand as our reach stretches from coast to coast. Our non-competitive approach and limited-utilization model continues to work as it has for the last 18 years, allowing us to generate industry-leading profits.”
Airline-only results for the fourth quarter included an increase in diluted EPS by over 40 percent to $4.04 and an increase in operating margin by 4.7 points to 21.3 percent versus Q4 2018. Total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) increased 2.5 percent, while operating cost per available seat mile – excluding fuel (CASM-ex) declined by 1.5 percent. For the full year, operating CASM-ex declined 3.3 percent. At the close of the fourth quarter, Allegiant had cash and investments totaling $473M, a total debt of $1.4B and 27 unencumbered aircraft. During Q4 the company paid out $11M in dividends and expects to pay a dividend of $0.70 per share on March 12, 2020 to shareholders of record as of March 2, 2020.
Founded in 1999, Allegiant links passengers from small to medium cities to world-class leisure destinations. The company operates 450 routes nationwide and offers base airfares that are often half the price of a typical roundtrip ticket. Allegiant's Sunseeker Resorts subsidiary is currently building a major resort in Port Charlotte, in Southwest Florida.
In after-hours trading on Wednesday, shares in Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ: ALGT) were trading flat at $163.50/share (5:01PM EST).
Source: Allegiant Travel Company