Investigates

Action News Jax investigates Allegiant Air's history of delays and mechanical failures

An Action News Jax investigation is uncovering a history of delays, mechanical failures and emergency landings for Allegiant Air flights.

An Allegiant flight out of Memphis destined for Jacksonville arrived seven hours late Monday night.

That delay forced the cancellation of another Allegiant flight out of Jacksonville International Airport.

“It’s quite an inconvenience and I won’t fly them ever again,” said Hariette Gorove, who had to fly out Tuesday instead.

Gorove said she’s frustrated she had to waste her last paid vacation day because her Allegiant flight to Memphis took off 22 hours behind schedule.

“They gave us a voucher to a roach motel. It’s terrible. It was terrible. I wouldn’t put my worst enemy in that motel,” said Gorove.

Action News Jax requested Florida Allegiant inspection and investigation records from the Federal Aviation Administration in March.

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The FAA released those documents to Action News Jax Tuesday. They reveal 127 investigations into issues on Florida Allegiant Air flights since 2005.

The documents reveal mechanical failures that caused emergency landings, aborted takeoffs and flight diversions because of smoke in the cabin and climbing cabin pressure.

Action News Jax requested the documents after an emergency landing at JIA eight weeks ago. Allegiant said a pressurization issue caused the diversion to Jacksonville.

Four weeks later, 14 Allegiant flights out of Orlando were diverted or grounded because of mechanical or staffing problems.

“They comped us $100 for our next flight. But I’m not making another flight,” said Gorove.

The average age of a plane in Allegiant’s fleet is 22 years.

“Well, we were excited about the cheap fare,” said Allegiant passenger Paulette Reese.

Last month, Allegiant announced it was launching flights to four new cities out of Jacksonville.