Washington Post Special Report: Allegiant Air Draws FAA’s Attention Over Safety Concerns

Ultra-low fare airline carrier Allegiant Air will offer flights out of Trenton-Mercer Airport in November. The airline will compete directly with Frontier Airlines, offering nonstop flights to three destinations in Florida.

County officials have said they are thrilled that Allegiant will be operating out of the airport in Ewing, and area residents have expressed excitement about the new ultra-low fare options. But an investigation by the Washington Post, released today, should give travelers pause.

Post reporters reviewed about 300 pages of Federal Aviation Administration records for Allegiant that show a pattern of safety problems that have triggered a relatively large number of aborted takeoffs, emergency descents and emergency landings from Jan. 1, 2015 through March of 2016.

Allegiant had about nine times as many serious incidents over that period as Delta Air Lines had with similar types of planes of similar age, even though Delta was flying about three times as many such planes.

Read the full Washington Post investigation here.

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Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.

One Comment

  1. The FAA safety investigation didn’t really show much of anything. If you look at the amount of incidents that have happened since their pilots ratified their new contract, you’ll see that those have decreased dramatically.

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