I have been following Allegiant painting their new (to them) Boeing 757s from the begining. From the winglets to a partial shot of the body. Now I have gotten access to four more photos from a blogspot set up just to share these photos (there is actually a 5th pic there). Check out these pictures of the Allegiant livery on Boeing 757 N901NV (click for larger):
Although Allegiant has announced many new flights this week, none of them are for one of the Boeing 757’s. I have been told that they will continue to announce new routes next week, but not to expect any Boeing 757 routes…yet. It is expected that these 757s will fly to Honolulu, but nothing to date has been confirmed. Until then, we will just have to enjoy these photos of the 757’s.
The Boeing 757 already has such a clean look and this livery looks quite at home. If they do fly out of Bellingham to Honolulu, as expected, I think it will be worth the trip to see one of these planes in person (Bellingham is about 1.5hrs north of Seattle).
Allegiant MD-80 tail with a clear blue sky
Allegiant Air announced today that they will be adding 16 additional seats to most of their MD-80 aircraft. All of the 48 currently operating and nine of the additional ones will be operating with 150 seats will be changed to accommodate 166 seats. The three MD-87’s that hold 133 seats will not be changed.
Allegiant is investing $50million into this change, which includes removing the galleys. They will start the changes near the end of 2011 and will be completed by the end of 2012.
“These added seats will allow us to grow our capacity with the least amount of risk,” Andrew C. Levy, Allegiant President, said. “This project effectively increases our capacity by 11 percent while lowering our cost per seat. In addition, we expect to fund this through internally generated cash-flow.”
This investment shows that Allegiant will continue with their fleet of MD-80 aircraft as well as their newer Boeing 757s for the future.
Due to the increase in passengers, Allegiant will be adding a fourth flight attendant to the 166 passenger aircraft. This increases the ratio of flight attendant to passenger from 1:50 to 1:42.
I wondered if this would mean Allegiant would offer less seat pitch for customers. Just back in 2004, Allegiant made a big deal about taking out three rows of seats to provide more leg room (thanks to Dan Webb for that link). I asked Jordan McGee, Director if Allegiant Corporate Communications and she explained that all Allegiant’s aircraft are not configured the same, but even after the conversion to 166 seats, all the aircraft will have a seat pitch between 30-32 inches.
“Our current seat pitch varies by aircraft because of different configurations, but our average is 30-32 inches. We also have quite a few seats at 33 inches and then some upwards of that, depending on the aircraft. Once we make the conversion to 166 seats, each seat will be between 30-32 inches,” McGee explained.
If they aren’t using the galleys to serve food, why have them? Heck, if Allegiant can put in more seats and more flight attendants while not taking any leg room away from me and while trying to keep fares competitive, I am all for it.
Image: p1anespotting
Allegiant Airlines Boeing 757 (N901NV) with full livery
A while back I was able to get a hold of a photo of a Boeing 757 with only the winglet painted with Allegiant Livery. Today I was sent a photo of the whole (ok, minus the nose) plane decked out in Allegiant livery.
As reported previously, Allegiant is looking to fly the planes to destinations in Hawaii. To date, they have not announced where they will fly.
I do not know when or where this photo was taken, but I do know the Allegiant livery looks dang good on a Boeing 757 in my opinion.
SEE LARGER VERSION
Allegiant Air Boeing 757 with new winglets
Allegiant Air has announced service to Hawaii using Boeing 757s. We don’t know from where or when, but it is exciting for a number of different reasons.
Allegiant currently only has a fleet of MD-80 aircraft. Their business model of owning their older aircraft has worked and seeing a deviation from their current model is pretty interesting. It also means we get to see Allegiant’s livery on another aircraft type.
The airline is expanding their route map to Hawaii, which will be the longest route they serve. To help do this, Allegiant is retrofitting their newly purchased Boeing 757s with blended winglets.
Yesterday I hoped to get a glimpse of the winglets while the the aircraft are being worked on at Paine Field, but no luck. I figured they would be locked away, but it was a hot day and maybe a hangar door would be open. However, I was lucky enough to get in possession of this wonderful photo of one of Allegiant’s Boeing 757s with a new liveried winglet. You can see that the body still has the old Thompson livery without titles.
Aviation-Designs.net has a rough mock-up of what the Allegiant 757 might look like, but without the winglets.
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Photo from Allegiant
Allegiant MD-87
Allegiant Air has been very successful over the last few years. They fly a fleet of about 45 older MD-80’s (their average age is about 20yrs), but they fly to smaller airports around the country and concentrate more on leisure passengers than business. Allegiant Air has been around since 1998 and currently fly to over 70 destinations.
Ben Mutzabaugh, who writes Today in the Sky for USA Today, was able to sit down with Allegiant’s CEO Maruice Gallagher for a unique inside look of the airline and its future. Be sure to check out his multi-part interview:
Q&A Part I: Fliers may not like them, but will they pay them?
Q&A Part II: A la carte fees have been a ‘revelation’ for U.S. airline industry
Q&A Part III: ‘We’re not ruling anything out’ on Orlando airport switch; AirTran competition
Q&A Part IV: Allegiant Air CEO discusses Hawaii, MD-80 fleet
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