Allegiant's (ALGT) Traffic & Capacity Decline In September

Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT) reported disappointing traffic figures for September. Traffic for scheduled service — measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) — declined 5.1% on a year-over-year basis to 639.53 million. Scheduled capacity, calculated in available seat miles (ASMs), also decreased 5.6% to 775.91 million in the month.

As capacity contraction was more than the fall in traffic, load factor (percentage of seats filled with passengers) inched up 40 basis points year over year to 82.4%.

The number of departures for scheduled service dipped 1.5%. Additionally, average stage length (average distance flown per aircraft departure) declined 4.5% to 808 miles in the same month.

Allegiant Travel Company Price

Allegiant Travel Company price | Allegiant Travel Company Quote

Allegiant’s passenger count for scheduled service slid 0.8% in September. The same for total system (including scheduled service and fixed fee contract) dipped 0.5%. Additionally, total system ASMs fell 3.7% year over year in September. The company's system-wide average fuel cost per gallon was approximately $2.11 in the month, lower than $2.13 in August. Allegiant expects fuel cost per gallon of $2.15 for 2019.

This reporting cycle, the carrier is set to report third-quarter earnings numbers on Oct 24.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

Allegiant carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some other top-ranked stocks in the same space are Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VLRS) , Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (NYSE:GOL) and SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) , each carrying the same Zacks Rank as Allegiant. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Shares of Controladora Vuela, Gol Linhas and SkyWest have rallied more than 97%, 14% and 23%, respectively, so far this year.

Today's Best Stocks from Zacks

Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2018, while the S&P 500 gained +15.8%, five of our screens returned +38.0%, +61.3%, +61.6%, +68.1%, and +98.3%.

This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2018, while the S&P averaged +4.8% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +56.2% per year.

See their latest picks free >>