US newcomer Avelo Airlines celebrates reaching 1m pax; serving 30 airports but has dropped six

Avelo Airlines (IATA code XP) launched its first commercial flight on 28 April 2021, from Burbank (IATA code BUR) in California to Santa Rosa. Less than 16 months later, on 12 August 2022, the airline celebrated carrying its one millionth passenger. According to planespotters.net it now has a fleet of 10 737s, a mix of 147-seat -700s and 189-seat -800s. Having started operations on the US west coast, the airline developed a presence on the east coast when it opened a base at Tweed New Haven (IATA code HVN) in Connecticut on 3 November 2021. Since then, it has also announced a base from Orlando MCO in Florida.

According to Air Service One’s North American New Route Database, Avelo has so far launched 35 routes. At least 10 more have already been announced and will start before the end of 2022. Most of these are to/from airports in Florida.

Avelo’s top 15 airports

Not surprisingly, in terms of the airline’s busiest airports for flights since launch, Burbank leads the way with well over 2,000 departures, ahead of Tweed New Haven with just under 1,900. The leading non-base airport is Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport which lies 11 kilometres northwest of downtown Santa Rosa in California.

Between April 2021 and August 2022, Avelo has operated to 31 airports in the US according to analysis of Cirium schedule data. However, six of these airports are no longer served by the airline:

• Bozeman (BZN) in Montana, last served in September 2021 (from Burbank)
• Fort Collins (FNL) in Colorado, last served in June 2022 (from Burbank and Las Vegas)
• Grand Junction (GJT) in Colorado, last served in September 2021 (from Burbank)
• Ogden (OGD) in Utah, last served in June 2022 (from Burbank)
• Phoenix (AZA) in Arizona, last served in September 2021 (from Burbank)
• Tucson (TUS) in Arizona, last served in January 2021 (from Burbank)

Despite being one of Avelo’s leading airports, it ceased operations from Ogden in Utah at the end of June, citing high fuel costs according to local media. However, the batch of new routes starting between now and the end of the year will see the addition of five new airports to the airline’s network:

• Kalamazoo (AZO) in Michigan, Orlando MCO service starts 26 October
• Lansing (LAN) in Michigan, Orlando MCO service starts 26 October
• Lexington (LEX) in Kentucky, Orlando MCO service starts 19 October followed by Tampa on 12 November
• Newport News / Williamsburg (PHF) in Virginia, Orlando MCO service starts 19 October followed by Fort Lauderdale on 20 October
• Palm Springs (PSP) in California, Bend / Redmond and Sonoma / Santa Rosa services start on 11 November, Eugene service starts on 12 November.

As a result, the airline’s website currently shows flights bookable from 30 US airports, 11 on the west coast and 19 on the east coast. Cirium data for August shows the airline operating 236 weekly departures. While there are between 36 and 44 departures on five days of the week, there are only 12 on Tuesdays and 18 on Wednesdays. Tweed New Haven has 75 weekly departures, almost three times as many as Burbank (26) and Orlando MCO (25).

Four Florida airports in top seven in December

Looking ahead to December when the new Florida routes have started, Tweed New Haven is still the leading airport with 56 weekly departures out of a network total of 214. Burbank (22) and Orlando MCO (18) are still second and third, followed by Fort Lauderdale (11), Santa Rosa (10), Fort Myers (nine) and Tampa (seven). As a result, four of Avelo’s top seven airports in December are in Florida.