Allegiant raised its fourth quarter 2024 guidance, citing stronger than expected bookings as a key driver, on December 12, 2024.
The company's consolidated earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter is forecast to be $1.75-$2.25, raised up from previous estimates of $0.00-$1.00 EPS. In addition, airline-only EPS was raised to $2.50-$3.00, having previously been estimated to be around $0.50-$1.50 per share.
Allegiant's airline-only operating margin is expected to be between 13% and 14%, as opposed to its previous forecast of 6-8%. The company's fourth quarter system capacity is expected to grow 1.9% on the same period last year, up from its prior estimate of 1.5%.
“Booking trends following the election continue to outpace our initial expectations,” said Allegiant chief commercial officer Drew Wells. “Demand recovery to hurricane-impacted destinations has been faster than expected, with demand to most impacted regions returning to normal.”
December capacity is expected to be up 17% on the previous year and the company has noted strong bookings for the holiday period, outpacing its initial expectations.
“Based on recent booking trends, we now expect fourth quarter TRASM to be down approximately 1.5% year-over-year on capacity growth of 1.8% for the quarter, versus our initial TRASM expectation of down 4.5% year-over-year,” added Wells.
Allegiant had taken delivery of two 737 MAX aircraft in November and expects to end the year with four MAX aircraft in service, bringing its total fleet count at the end of the year to 125.
The company also reported its November traffic, with passengers totalling 1.2 million - down 6.9% on November 2023. Capacity was down 1.7% and load factor was down 3.6 percentage points to 80.2%.