For a split second, I thought that the CEO of Allegiant had read my blog post – Don’t Fly Allegiant! – which details the questionable safety performance of the airline vis-a-vis a 60 Minutes segment and was responding directly to me. Alas, I am not that important. The email was more likely sent to anyone that has ever flown an Allegiant flight and inputted their email when making a reservation.
The CEO took on 60 Minutes’ reporting and was adamant that Allegiant was safe to fly. He added that Allegiant’s pilots and flight attendants work at Allegiant because it is a safe airline. He did not address why none of the pilots are discouraged from openly criticizing the airline.
In the video clip, the CEO spent more time sounding angry about the bad coverage that Allegiant had received than convincing me that 60 Minutes, my favorite news program, was not accurate in its portrayal of the airline. Even after hearing his pleas, I still have questions about Allegiant and remain unmotivated to fly the Greyhound of the skies again.
What about you, will you fly Allegiant?
I do not see how Allegiant is any worse of than anyone else. All their Airbus they are receiving are new and I do not see any of their engines breaking apart mid flight . Southwest – 2 in 3 years.
point taken
not only is the answer no but it’s a HELL NO!!!
then again, I don’t live in or want to go to any of the backwaters that make up 90% of Allegiant’s route map.
ahaha well said
So Orlando is a backwater? They have an NBA team. Or maybe you mean Las Vegas is a backwater? There’s plenty to dislike about any place if you’re hunting for reasons beforehand.
60 mins report was based on 2015 data when their fleet was largely md80. Im no Allegiant fan, but these issues have largely dissipated since bulk of fleet is now a320 as they are retiring all their md80s. This would have been a relevant report 3 years ago. In the time since, Allegiant has addressed issues and those issues aren’t really that relevant anymore. St Pete Times has been hitting Allegient with some “stern” reporting on this same report for years now.
So, I think airing that piece at this point in time (3 years late) was pretty unfair and indeed a hatchet job with poor reporting by 60 minutes.
With that said, I don’t plan on flying allegient bc their frequencies are awful for me and they don’t interline when things go sideways. I’d feel totally confident flying them though from a safety perspective (on an a320, of course).
I was more disturbed with the FAA reporting than Allegiant.
Same here! The FAA guy on 60 minutes appeared completely useless!
60 Minutes is your ‘favorite news program’? Whelp, ok then.
I get a kick out of these “news” programs who have “uncovered” something seemingly missed during the government mandated inspections and such. Airline maintenance is *highly* regulated, you know. Or is Allegiant just that much smarter than all the other airlines and able to snooker the government?
Well it isn’t Fox and Friends! 60 minutes and nightline and anything with my best friend Richard Quest
Sad and ironic that shortly after the program, Southwest flight had their engine blow up, which killed that poor woman while Allegiant hasn’t killed anyone. I imagine that after the program, the FAA will rediscover it’s duties and Allegiant will be held to the normal standards of domestic airlines. Personally, I’d fly Allegiant. They’re still much safer than so many other airlines worldwide. You just haven’t lived until you’ve flown a domestic flight in Haiti.
Assuming safety is in order, the delays on Allegiant make it unbearable.
I noticed that yesterday, the Allegiant CEO video on YouTube allowed comments, today it does not. CBS also responded saying the data was from early 2016 to Oct 2017. I saw Allegiant’s head of operations has said the captain was fired not unnecessarily evacuating the cabin and not taking responsibility for his behavior, which I guess is just a different interpretation of seeing smoke. I’m just hoping fares go down as I’m about to book a flight via Allegiant because it goes to an airport that everyone charges 3x as much.