New Route of the Day – Americas (6 October 2021): Avelo between Burbank and Fort Collins/Loveland

Northern Colorado Regional Airport (IATA code FNL) located mid-way between Fort Collins and Loveland, lies around 70 kilometres north of Denver right next to Interstate 25. On Wednesday 6 October it welcomed the return of scheduled flights with the arrival of 2-weekly service by Avelo from Hollywood/Burbank Airport in California. The inaugural service on the 1,370-kilometre route (flight number XP 131 operated by a Boeing 737-700, registration N702VL) departed Burbank at 07:25 and touched down in Fort Collins one hour and 49 minutes later at 10:14 local time. The return flight (XP 132) departed Colorado at 11:15 and landed back in California two hours and 11 minutes later at 12:26 local time according to flightradar24.com.

Avelo, which began operating at the end of April, is now serving nine destinations non-stop from Burbank, the others being Santa Rosa (6-weekly), Arcata/Eureka, Eugene (both 4-weekly) and Medford, Ogden, Pasco, Redding and Redmond/Bend (all 2-weekly). That makes a total of 26 weekly flights. There are six weekly departures on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, with a single departure on Wednesdays and Saturdays (on this new route to Fort Collins). There are no flights on Tuesdays. A tenth route to Tucson in Arizona is set to launch on 16 December and will be flown 4-weekly.

Cirium schedule data for June 2021 showed Avelo operating 11 routes from Burbank, with seven departures on every day of the week. Clearly its business model has evolved since then. The routes it has dropped from Burbank are Phoenix AZA in Arizona (last flight 13 September), Bozeman in Montana (last flight 15 September) and Grand Junction in Colorado (last flight 15 September).

Previous services to Fort Collins/Loveland

The last scheduled services from North Colorado Regional Airport, according to Cirium Data & Analytics, were with Elite Airways in October 2016. The carrier operated 2-weekly flights (Mondays and Fridays) on the 1,350-kilometre route to Rockford in Illinois using CRJs. The last time the airport welcomed big jets was in the summer of 2012 when Allegiant served the airport from both Las Vegas and Phoenix AZA.

Avelo clearly thinks the airport has potential as it is planning a second route to the airport, this time from Las Vegas, starting on 15 December. This will also operate 2-weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays.