BOGOTA—Allegiant Air has climbed back up from a 2022 position it describes as “the bottom of the industry, operationally” and sees a clear direction for further improvements in the years ahead.

In 2022, “we just weren't performing where we should have been, on the operational side of the house,” Allegiant President Greg Anderson said at Aviation Week Network’s Routes Americas 2024 conference here in Bogotá. More than $130 million in irregular operations (IROP) costs that year amounted to roughly four points of margin, he told attendees.

In response, the airline pulled back some of its peak-day flying, and looked inward for solutions.

“In 2023 we said ‘no more,’ and our planning team came together with the operational team,” driving $100 million of IROP costs out of the business in 2023,” Anderson said. “We took our rightful spot back at the top of the industry both operationally and financially.”

Now top among its objectives for the future is restoring peak-period utilization—flying which accounts for 80% of the airline’s earnings, Anderson said. For perspective, in 2019 the airline was running its aircraft, on average, about 10 hr. per day during peak periods, while in 2023, that figure was closer to 7.5 hr.

Describing peak-period demand as “off the charts,” Allegiant expects the restoration efforts to spill over into 2025.

“One of the most important things we can do this year … is restoring our peak-day flying,” and a cross-departmental team is entirely focused on how to restore capacity in those periods, Anderson said. “To help frame why that's so important—every hour of peak-day flying for Allegiant is worth about $100 million, or four points to the bottom line.”

With 24 U.S. bases supporting about 500 scheduled routes by peak summer, the airline still sees opportunity for an additional, incremental 1,400 routes over the next decade. And while it seeks to grow its fleet to 200 in the next five to six years, delivery delays continue to slow the all-Airbus operator’s introduction of a new fleet type, the Boeing 737 MAX. It currently operates an in-service fleet of 121, according to Aviation Week Network’s Fleet Discovery database, all Airbus A320-family.

Of its 50 firm 737 MAXs on order, it expects delivery of 10 this year, “maybe up to 12,” with the first expected in “a month or so,” Anderson said, down from the 24 contractually scheduled.

“We'd expect, I think by the summer, three of the MAX flyers in by the end of July,” Anderson said. “We're working with Boeing on 2024 and we just want to make sure that that schedule comes in orderly … we'll see where we go from there—those conversations are active.”