Allegiant Air and "60 Minutes"

[Chrispee]

Old aircraft, questionable maintenance, no interline agreements, lower quality pilots (on average)... There are so many reasons to not fly a low cost carrier like Allegiant IMO. Maybe if I lived near a small airport where they were the only game in town I might consider it?

I'm not super eager to hop on a 30 year old MD-80 with a 1500 hour first officer at the yoke.

 

[Sapper]

I won’t fly any low cost carrier. They have to shave costs somehow.
.

You are implying that "low cost" carriers shave costs by failing to maintain their aircraft correctly. This is not really true, though there are some glaring examples of this. Most of the reduced cost is in reduced overhead. The legacy carriers have legacy costs which the newer airlines do not need to pay (these are mostly old defined benefit retirement and medical programs). The low cost carriers also shave cost by not paying their employees as well as the legacy airlines.

The other way they make money is kind of a shell game with customers by charging fees for everything, then stair stepping fees based on when the customer decides to pay (ie, Spirit bag fee when the ticket is booked is lower than at the gate). There are other games the low cost airlines play, like eliminating reclining seats and then squishing them closer together so they can fit another row of seating onto a plane. At this point, most of the majors have caught on and are playing their own games, such as United squishing the seats together, but then selling an "upgrade" to what was at one time standard coach seating.

 

[Sapper]

Old aircraft, questionable maintenance, no interline agreements, lower quality pilots (on average)... There are so many reasons to not fly a low cost carrier like Allegiant IMO. Maybe if I lived near a small airport where they were the only game in town I might consider it?

I'm not super eager to hop on a 30 year old MD-80 with a 1500 hour first officer at the yoke.

You could fly your own plane or drive, but statistically speaking, you are safer in that 30 year old MD-80 with a 1500 hour pilot at the controls.

 

[rboesl]

I understand wanting to bash Allegiant. After all they were the target of the 60 Minutes "investigation" and segment. And, I will qualify my comments by saying I have never flown with Allegiant. But, some of what I saw and subsequently read said says maintenance is performed by a maintenance contractor. They're the ones who failed to correct some of the issues discovered or failed to complete a repair. To me that says not all the blame lies with Allegiant. Yes, Allegiant should have some oversight on the repairs and maintenance. But the maintenance contractor has some culpability here too. This is something that hasn't been brought up in this thread and seems to have been minimized by 60 Minutes.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Wow! We were thinking of flying them from Vegas to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore. I knew they are a budget airline, but didn’t realize the extent of their safety issues. We will have to explore other alternatives.

Best regards.

Mike

My understanding ( from a few years ago ) is that Allegiant's model is buying older used planes . That type of fleet would likely require more maintenence ......

Spirit for instance is in the process of growing by adding new planes *. (Airbus - 118 in service & 53 on order )

*Wikipedia

 

[dioxide45]

My understanding ( from a few years ago ) is that Allegiant's model is buying older used planes . That type of fleet would likely require more maintenence ......

Spirit for instance is in the process of growing by adding new planes *. (Airbus - 118 in service & 53 on order )

*Wikipedia

Frontier is also growing by adding new aircraft.

 

[PigsDad]

I understand wanting to bash Allegiant. After all they were the target of the 60 Minutes "investigation" and segment. And, I will qualify my comments by saying I have never flown with Allegiant. But, some of what I saw and subsequently read said says maintenance is performed by a maintenance contractor. They're the ones who failed to correct some of the issues discovered or failed to complete a repair. To me that says not all the blame lies with Allegiant. Yes, Allegiant should have some oversight on the repairs and maintenance. But the maintenance contractor has some culpability here too. This is something that hasn't been brought up in this thread and seems to have been minimized by 60 Minutes.

Yes, but who hired that company to do the maintenance? If they screw up that often, why do they keep on using them? Allegiant should have more than "some oversight", IMO.

Kurt

 

[rboesl]

Yes, but who hired that company to do the maintenance? If they screw up that often, why do they keep on using them? Allegiant should have more than "some oversight", IMO.

Kurt

I absolutely agree. Allegiant failed. The maintenance contractor failed. The FAA inspectors failed. My point was simply don't just lay blame at Allegiant's feet. There's plenty to go around.

 

[taterhed]

Surprise, Surprise....

Most airlines use contractors for some or all of their maintenance.

Doesn't matter if it's an in-house job, contractor or foreign contractor (yes, many are, don't look shocked), the airline maintains responsibility for oversight and inspection of all work done in accordance with their operating instructions.

So, the blame falls on the airline..... Not just Allegiant, but any airline. Happens once? Hm. Contractor issue. Happens multiple times? Well, you know....

 

[Patri]

My friend was on the Allegiant flight from FL to MD that the pilot aborted, and was fired. It was extremely scary for her, and they exited down a chute.

 

[Carta]

I was planning travel from ABE to SFB in October...After this report, I feel safer...Allegiant should get the hint. HOPEFULLY!!

 

[Chrispee]

You could fly your own plane or drive, but statistically speaking, you are safer in that 30 year old MD-80 with a 1500 hour pilot at the controls.

I absolutely agree with what you’re saying, however I’d rather pay more for a flight on a different airline was more my point.

 

[Carol C]

What about ValueJet? Wasnt that the early incarnation?

 

[Carol C]

Dang i cannot seem to edit myself!