Allegiant Reports Impressive January Traffic Statistics

Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT) has recently reported traffic numbers for January. Traffic for the total system including scheduled service and fixed fee contract, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), increased 9.3% on a year-over-year basis to 877.42 million. System capacity, calculated in available seat miles (ASMs), improved 6.1% to 1.1 billion.

With traffic growth outpacing capacity expansion, load factor (percentage of seats filled with passengers) rose 240 basis points year over year to 79.9%.

Allegiant’s passenger count gained 8.7% in January while its system-wide average fuel cost per gallon was approximately $2.23 in the month.

The robust traffic results were released just a few days after the company reported fourth-quarter 2017 financial numbers with better-than-expected earnings per share and revenues. Moreover, both the metrics improved substantially from the year-ago figures. The bottom line was aided by higher revenues while the top line was boosted, primarily by a significant increase in ancillary revenues.

For the first quarter of 2018, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company expects average seat miles (scheduled and system) to rise year over year in the 10-14% band. Additionally, it anticipates ASMs (scheduled and system) to grow in the range of 11-15% year over year for the current year. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Other key airline players namely United Continental Holdings (NYSE:UAL) , Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) and American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) have also recently announced fourth-quarter earnings performance, each reporting better-than-expected figures.

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