Avelo Airlines is one of the newest airlines in the United States (along with Breeze Airways). The airline launched operations as of April 2021, initially flying from Burbank to 11 destinations on the West Coast, while offering incredibly low fares. The airline recently introduced a handful of new West Coast routes.
Several months ago Avelo revealed that it would expand to the East Coast. In mid-August the airline announced its first four routes out of New Haven, then in mid-September the airline announced a fifth route, and now the airline has revealed a sixth route.
In this post:
Avelo’s plans for a New Haven base
Avelo Airlines is setting up its first East Coast base at Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN). The airline is starting operations in November 2021, hoping to bring choice, low fares, and convenience, to Southern Connecticut.
Avelo is investing $1.2 million into the airport to help upgrade and modernize facilities and operations, and will also employ more than 100 crew members at the airport by the end of the year, including pilots, flight attendants, customer support personnel, and technicians.
Avelo’s investment is part of a $100 million project that the airport has for a new terminal, and an extension of the runway at the airport. As Avelo Airlines CEO Andrew Levy described this decision back in May:
“We are very excited to partner with HVN as we begin to build our East Coast operations. Our surprisingly low fares and refreshingly smooth travel experience are sure to be embraced by residents of Southern Connecticut. Tweed New Haven has enormous potential, and our first East Coast base is great news for Avelo, New Haven, East Haven and other local communities.”
Avelo’s routes from New Haven
Avelo Airlines has put tickets on sale for its first destinations from the New Haven base. Specifically, Avelo Airlines will fly between New Haven (HVN) and six Florida cities:
- Orlando (MCO) as of November 3, 2021, with 5x weekly flights
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL) as of November 5, 2021, with 5x weekly flights
- Tampa (TPA) as of November 8, 2021, with 3x weekly flights
- Fort Myers (RSW) as of November 11, 2021, with 2x weekly flights
- West Palm Beach (PBI) as of December 16, 2021, with 5x weekly flights
- Sarasota (SRQ) as of January 13, 2022, with 3x weekly flights
Five of those routes had already been announced, while the Sarasota route has newly been announced. Furthermore, the airline has expanded service over peak holiday travel days — between December 16, 2021, and January 4, 2022, the airline will run daily flights to Fort Myers, Tampa, and West Palm Beach.
Fares on these routes start at $59 one-way, though of course vary, and could go up over time.
With these new routes, here’s Avelo Airlines’ overall routemap:
All of Avelo’s flights out of New Haven will be operated by Boeing 737 aircraft, including 147-seat Boeing 737-700s, and 189-seat Boeing 737-800s.
My take on Avelo’s New Haven base
Avelo Airlines is an ultra low cost carrier, and we knew from the beginning that the airline intended to primarily serve markets that aren’t served by other airlines.
Avelo started operations by setting up a base in Burbank. Los Angeles is a major market, and Hollywood Burbank Airport is an incredibly convenient airport for so many people. While Avelo’s routes were largely unique, the airport as such was already fairly well served.
The new base in New Haven is much more fascinating and riskier, if you ask me. For context, Tweed New Haven Airport serves just around 50,000 passengers per year, and the airport has a single commercial route, on American Eagle to Philadelphia (and that was even recently suspended).
There’s so much potential value here, but also risk:
- Avelo is run by some smart people, and I’m sure they’ve run the numbers on these routes, and they believe this will make sense
- At the same time, it’s fascinating to essentially set up a base at an airport that otherwise doesn’t get much service
- I’m sure the cost structure for Avelo at the airport is amazing, and much lower than in Burbank
- Tweed New Haven Airport is just under an hour drive (around 55 miles) from Hartford-Bradley International Airport, so presumably the airline is primarily hoping to poach passengers who would otherwise fly out of there; the airport is also just a few miles from Yale, so I’m sure this will be popular with college students
It shouldn’t be too surprising to see that Avelo’s first routes out of New Haven are all to Florida, especially with flights operating in the fall and winter. If this coming winter is anything like last winter, Florida could once again be the hottest leisure destination for the season.
Bottom line
Avelo Airlines is setting up its first East Coast base at Tweed New Haven Airport. The airline will connect Connecticut with six destinations in Florida, offering 2-5x weekly flights in each market (and up to daily flights during the peak winter holiday). Tweed Airport is currently a tiny airport that gets very little service, and it’s just under an hour drive from Hartford. The airline is betting on South Connecticut and the surrounding area, and I hope the bet pays off.
What do you make of Avelo Airlines setting up a base in New Haven, and the initial Florida routes?
I THINK IT IS GREAT. SO MUCH BETTER THAN HAVING TO GO INTO NEW YORK AIRPORS. GREAT IDEA
My family just flew Avelo airlines on the 5thbof Nov , 10 people, great prices for families that couldnt afford to fly before. My family called from Palm Beach ,they loved the service,flight and said the pilot and stewards were kind and frienly and
We will all be flying again.
My family were Shlaudlers and the Hernandez from Hamden,Ct and Meriden ,Ct. Wecwill be using Avelo from now on. When are you extending to Puerto Rico?
Thank you AVELO
I think it’s great, I wish they would consider Amelia island as another destination. Construction and population is booming in this area.
They have an airport.
I am also disappointed that Jacksonville isn't being served. I have family in the New Haven area and have been waiting for an airline to service New Haven nonstop for years. Even once a week would be a help! Please try us Avelo, this area is growing and I'm sure many people here would support it!
I would fly more if the airport were closer than Providence (1hr 10min + parking) or Hartford (1hr 30min + parking). Ttweed is only 20min and family members could handle drop off and pick up.
Disappointed that north Florida isn't being served at all. Jacksonville is a wonderful airport, not the zoo of the south Florida airports.
I can't seem to find any flight schedules on line yet. Also what type of aircraft are they using?
I would definitely fly out of Tweed to West Palm Beach. Watched a segment on Patch as Avelo landed at Tweed during the recent Nor’easter was impressed. Wishing them good luck on their partnership with Tweed
I think it great to fly out of tweed wish they would add gainsville fla
I bet that they will look at Milwaukee as a possible midwest hub city with easy connections to Chicago area via Amtrak station at Mitchell Field MKE.
This is a win/win for CT. The heavily populated coastline and its surrounding community will benefit from the location and ease of Tweed. I have worked at and flown in/out of Tweed multiple times and you just can't beat the convenience. And the competitive low fares make it all even better. Nothing wrong with being 2 1/2 hours from my front door to the beach! Welcome to HVN Avelo.
It is interesting to me that they are operating in two completely separate areas of the country with no connection. Do you think they will link their East Coast and West Coast operations at some point (maybe Burbank or Las Vegas to New Haven)?
If they are successful, it will be interesting to see if they expand to further bases in the Midwest or South/Southwest and where they will choose to place them.
American actually ended HVN service at the end of last month. It’s all Avelo’s now.
I believe AA suspended service to Philly.. so Avelo will be the only airline at Tweed. And as a New Haven resident with parents who live in Florida... I already have two roundtrips booked.
Already know people who live in the area (non college - older adults) booking because now they don’t have to drive to LGA for a flight to PBI. They’re skeptical of the ULCC aspect, but they said even if it costs the same as Delta, etc in the end, they’d rather not drive 90-120 min to the airport.
I personally would rather have more frequency to FLL/PBI or TPA/SRQ than serving 2 airports an hour apart.
But I guess leisure travelers to FL don't rent a car anymore?
Or maybe it's more convenient for FL residents to fly closer from home to New Haven?
But the CEO is ex Allegiant which made PIE/SQR work, so maybe he knows what he's doing.
Running college kids to Florida in the winter months can be a profitable business. It was our model for a while at People Express in the early 80’s and it worked — until the company over expanded itself into bankruptcy.
There are also a lot of wealthy people in the New Haven area who will use this. Many of them have second homes in these areas of Florida. These people normally drive up to Bradley or to New York. There is a market for this, at least in the winter. And it's more than just college students.
@Jason
I think you confused New Haven with somewhere else. Wealthy people don't live in New Haven.
If you are referring to the county, then only few towns are wealthy. The wealthy are in Fairfield.
It's just college students, many homeless, some violence, and one good place for pie in New Haven, nothing wealthy about it.
New Haven my hometown is a poor city, however there’s much wealth in parts and in surrounding area, even Fairfield is 45 min to HVN. More intriguing, however, is the possibility of lower income folk from metro New Haven and Bridgeport actually being able to afford a FLA trip (ie new airline travelers) vs not ever doing a cost-prohibitive trip including how to pay for travel to NY airports. New Haven and Bridgeport total 500,000...
New Haven my hometown is a poor city, however there’s much wealth in parts and in surrounding area, even Fairfield is 45 min to HVN. More intriguing, however, is the possibility of lower income folk from metro New Haven and Bridgeport actually being able to afford a FLA trip (ie new airline travelers) vs not ever doing a cost-prohibitive trip including how to pay for travel to NY airports. New Haven and Bridgeport total 500,000 residents including the Havens, the neighboring towns. Another 1,000,000 are within a 45-50 min drive.