ALLEGIANT TRAVEL COMPANY SECOND QUARTER 2011 FINANCIAL RESULTS

Las Vegas, Nev., August 1, 2011 /GLOBE NEWSWIRE/ – Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ: ALGT) today reported the following financial results for the 2nd quarter 2011 and comparisons to prior year equivalents.

“We are very proud to report our 34th consecutive profitable quarter,” stated Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Allegiant Travel Company. “I’d like to thank our Team Members for their great efforts and contributions to another successful quarter.

“Revenues have been very strong. Scheduled service revenues were up almost 24% versus 2nd quarter 2010 despite a reduction in capacity. The $19 increase in revenue per passenger more than offset the $15 per passenger increase in fuel cost during the quarter.

“We are also very excited about the addition of the first 757 to our operating certificate, which occurred on July 1. We recently began operating this 217 seat aircraft on two of our Las Vegas routes, McAllen, Texas and Rockford, Illinois and have been receiving excellent feedback from our customers. Having the additional seats during the peak summer travel period is proving to be quite valuable. We are now working on preparing our application to the FAA for obtaining the requisite ETOPS approvals we need in order to commence Hawaii flights which we hope to be able to begin next summer.

“The introduction of the 757, our Hawaii expansion and the previously announced MD- 80 seat expansion projects are all important to the company and we are excited to see progress on all fronts. Our Team Members have been working diligently to complete these product additions as well as continue to provide our customers with low cost access to our world class destinations,” concluded Gallagher.

Andrew C. Levy, President of Allegiant Travel Company, stated, “We are very pleased with our revenue performance during the 2nd quarter. We produced the highest total fare in our company’s history, driven by increases in the base air fare, and both air-related and third party ancillary revenues. A 2.6% reduction in capacity was a key factor enabling this strong revenue performance. We have again proven we can thrive during periods of high fuel price volatility if we are prudent in how we allocate our capacity.

“Strength in revenue has continued as we enter this 3rd quarter, again aided by a tight capacity plan. Capacity this quarter will be lower as compared with the 3rd quarter of 2010 and we again expect to post substantial increases in unit revenues as more fully described in the guidance section later in the release.

“Our current plan for the 4th quarter shows slight growth in capacity, mostly attributable to having a full quarter flying our first 757 as well as a small contribution from the presence of some re-configured MD-80 aircraft with 166 seats in the operating fleet.

“Finally, we again experienced strong growth in our third party ancillary revenue primarily resulting from greater volume and yield in hotel room sales. Room nights grew over 12% versus the 2nd quarter last year, with almost half of the increase generated away from our traditionally strong Las Vegas market. Growth in the third party segment is a high priority and we continue to make investments in management and technology to further that goal,” concluded Levy.

?Scott Sheldon, SVP and CFO of Allegiant Travel Company, stated, “During the 2nd quarter, we experienced a 27% increase in unit costs – cost per passenger was $115.24 compared with $90.96 in the 2nd quarter 2010 – but the results were as projected. Fuel costs per passenger were 37% higher, and non-fuel per passenger costs were up by 18% or slightly more than $9.

“The increase in non-fuel unit costs was mostly due to reduced fleet utilization and $4.8 million of special items or $3.08 per passenger. These expenses included 757 pre- operating costs, manual integrations, the retirement of one MD-87 and the write down and impairment charges related to our engine consignment program. The increase in non-fuel per passenger costs would have been only $3.30 or 6.5% excluding these special items and if fleet utilization had remained unchanged on a year over year basis.

“Apart from fuel, we experienced the most unit cost pressure in the maintenance area due to the execution of our engine overhaul and repair strategy as we have described in the past. We continue to project expenses between $20 and $25 million in 2011 for the overhaul of 30 to 35 engines, but the majority of these expenditures will occur in the 3rd and 4th quarters of this year.

“While our full year 2011 engine operating expense projection remains unchanged, we have increased our projection for total cash outlays. We now expect to increase our capital expenditures to take advantage of current opportunities in the secondary engine market which will replenish our engine sparing levels and enable us to better manage the timing and costs associated with major engine overhaul events in the future.

“Lastly, our unrestricted cash balance (including short term investments) grew slightly during the 2nd quarter to $317 million, up $11 million from the end of the 1st quarter. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 34,300 shares for $1.6 million and we currently have $44.9 million in remaining board authorized authority,” concluded Sheldon.