Allegiant Air Grounds Half of Fleet.
Allegiant Air has canceled 18 of 121 scheduled flights, a move that affected roughly 2,700 passengers.
Brian Davis, a spokesman, said 16 of the flights originally planned for Friday would operate on Saturday, when the carrier also expects to complete a full schedule of 33 flights.
Davis added that more disruptions were likely on Sunday and Monday, which are busier days. "We do anticipate more cancellations," he said during a conference call.
The Las Vegas-based discounter, which offers flights to leisure destinations such as MCO and FLL in Florida and cities in Hawaii, said it had secured seven aircraft from other carriers to help it provide flights as it makes the inspections of its MD-80s.
To complete the needed checks, the slides must be taken off planes and sent to a third party for overhaul. Davis also said Allegiant was buying evacuation slides in a bid to return planes to service as soon as possible.
The FAA directed the carrier to report the status of the evacuation slides on its MD-80s while investigating an emergency evacuation of an Allegiant flight in LAS on Monday. As part of the FAA review, Allegiant said it found that it was not meeting updated manufacturer guidelines that called for older slides to be overhauled every year, and so decided to pull planes from service to make the checks. Allegiant said it had been checking the MD-80 slides every three years.
"The FAA this week became aware that Allegiant Air may not have inspected some emergency evacuation slides on its MD-80 fleet at required intervals," Ian Gregor, public affairs manager with the FAA Pacific Division, said in a statement.
