Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT Quick QuoteALGT - Free Report) reported impressive traffic numbers for the month of July as air-travel demand improved in the United States. With more and more Americans getting jabbed, the picture is very bright, particularly on a year-over-year basis.

Scheduled traffic (measured in revenue passenger miles) surged 107% from the July 2020 levels. Capacity (measured in available seat miles) for scheduled service increased 29.1% from the July 2020 reading. With the traffic surge outweighing capacity expansion, load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) in July expanded 30.6 points to 81.3% from the year-ago period’s levels. For the total system (including scheduled service and fixed fee contract), Allegiant carried 107.2% more passengers in July 2021 from the year-ago period’s level.

Compared with the July 2019 levels (pre-COVID), scheduled traffic and capacity surged 7.3% and 16.4%, respectively. However, the load factor tanked 6.9 points to 81.3% as increase in traffic was lower than capacity expansion. For the total system, the airline carried 6.1% more passengers in July 2021 from July 2019 levels.

With oil prices shooting up, Allegiant is witnessing a rise in fuel cost per gallon. Fuel price per gallon in July is estimated to have been $2.19 compared with $2.11 for June.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Allegiant currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the Zacks Transportation sector are SkyWest (SKYW Quick QuoteSKYW - Free Report) , Matson (MATX Quick QuoteMATX - Free Report) and Costamare (CMRE Quick QuoteCMRE - Free Report) , each presently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1Rank stocks here.

Shares of SkyWest, Matson and Costamare have gained 3.2%, 13.4% and 4.9%, respectively, over the past month.