Having announced its intention to add second-hand A320-200s retired by carriers due to the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, Allegiant Air (G4, Las Vegas Harry Reid) is now "inundated" with offers and could add aircraft in early 2021, Chief Financial Officer Greg Anderson told Bloomberg.
"It's an opportunity for us to buy A320s used and to get those at lower fixed costs than in the past... We’re trying to keep as much flexibility as possible, but we’ve got some irons in the fire in the event we feel good about demand, and it’s coming back," Anderson said.
Earlier this year, Allegiant Air - which has a history of fleet expansion through adding second-hand aircraft - said it would opportunistically look at A320s available during the pandemic. Anderson said that the carrier would look both at small deals, covering one or two units, as well as larger transactions, subject to market demand.
Allegiant Air currently operates thirty-eight A319-100s and sixty-six A320-200s. All but eleven A320s are owned by the carrier, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows. Only thirteen A320s were bought by the airline directly from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac), while the remainder of its fleet was added second-hand from a total of 21 previous operators.
Anderson added that the carrier was very optimistic about market recovery, despite the demand remaining at around a third of 2019 levels.
"As early as next year, we can start getting back to an earnings discussion versus a cash flow break-even discussion. If things continue as they have been over the past few months, a slow and steady build, we feel very optimistic we’ll have an earnings story and a very meaningful one at that," he said.
The carrier focuses wholly on leisure markets, which are recovering much quicker than business-heavy routes.
