(Bloomberg) -- The intense competition on display at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics shares something in common with dog fights in the skies when it comes to passenger airfares, according to one US airline executive.
Allegiant Travel Co., which operates budget carrier Allegiant Air, is experiencing financial turbulence from a drop in ticket prices as the industry struggles with overcapacity. But its chairman, Maury Gallagher, says his company hasn’t been impacted as much as its low-cost rivals. Speaking on an earnings conference call Wednesday, he likened jockeying among other airlines to the action during an Olympic water polo match.
“We have our own private swim lane and the rest of the world is playing water polo,” he told analysts. “I don’t know if you guys watched any of the Paris stuff, but water polo is a nasty game. There’s a lot more going on underneath that you don’t see on top, and that’s the same thing going on here.”
He added that Allegiant tends to serve smaller cities with routes that don’t overlap with major carriers. “When we grow, we don’t go and tweak the nose of big competitors when we do it,” he said.
--With assistance from Mary Schlangenstein.
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