3 Links I Love: Allegiant and the FAA Get Hammered, Rolls Royce Has Engine Problems Yet Again
This week’s TWO featured links:
I decided to feature two links this week, because they shine light on two sides of the same coin…
Allegiant Air: The Budget Airline Flying Under the Radar – 60 Minutes
In case you missed it, 60 Minutes ran a scathing half-hour piece on Allegiant’s safety issues last Sunday. It makes the FAA look pretty bad too. Now the question is… how much is right? Had Allegiant bothered to actually comment on the story, maybe some of the inaccuracies could have been resolved easily. But no, Allegiant inexplicably wouldn’t talk to 60 Minutes, and that instantly made the airline look guilty in the public eye. After the story went live, Allegiant finally woke up…
Personal message from Allegiant CEO Maury Gallagher – YouTube
Here’s a video from CEO Maury Gallagher that was uploaded on Tuesday talking about the report. He refutes some of what was in there, and I’ve talked to people who have been crunching the numbers. It’s not easy getting to some of the exact data points mentioned in the story, so I don’t quite know what to believe and what not to believe. But as they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire (inappropriate pun intended). There are issues here in one form or another.
Either way, I don’t think this hurts Allegiant in the long run. People will still keep buying tickets because it’s cheap and in many cases, it’s the only nonstop option. Oh, and did I mention it’s cheap?
One for the road:
FAA imposes restrictions on Boeing 787s powered by some Rolls engines – The Seattle Times
Remember when Rolls Royce had those A380 engine problems? Well, now it’s time for the 787s to have trouble. No US airlines are impacted since they don’t have Rolls onboard, but British Airways, Norwegian, and ANA all do. And now they have to fly closer to alternate airports while this gets worked out.
