ALGT - Allegiant Travel cuts Q3 revenue & capacity forecast to account for Hurricane Ian impact

Allegiant Travel ( NASDAQ: ALGT ) on Thursday updated its Q3 guidance to reflect an expected impact from Hurricane Ian, including cutting its revenue and capacity forecast.

The company now expects Q3 total operating revenue to grow ~27.5% from Q3 2019, compared to a previous outlook of ~29%.

"We were on track to come in above our revenue guide of up 29 percent, year over three-year. However, the impacts from Hurricane Ian have resulted in the cancellation of the majority of our flights touching Florida over the course of the next few days," ALGT executive Drew Wells said in a statement .

Total system capacity, or available seat miles, for Q3 is anticipated to rise ~14.5% from Q3 2019, compared to a prior expectation of ~16%.

Q3 operating cost per available seat mile, a key metric of an airline's efficiency, is now expected to rise 13% to 14% from Q3 2019 vs. ~10% earlier.

Allegiant ( ALGT ) also reported preliminary numbers for Aug., posting a rise in scheduled service passengers, traffic, capacity and load factor.

The company flew 1.38M scheduled service passengers in Aug., compared to 1.24M in Aug. 2019 from before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aug. preliminary traffic, or revenue passenger miles, for scheduled service rose 16.8% from Aug. 2019 to 1.22B.

Aug. preliminary capacity for scheduled service rose 14.6% from Aug. 2019 to 1.41B.

Scheduled service load factor for Aug. was 86.9%, compared to 85.2% for Aug. 2019.

ALGT stock -4.2% to $75.43 in morning trading.

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