In 2021, we saw two new low cost carriers launch service in the United States — I’m talking about Breeze Airways and Avelo Airlines. Breeze Airways was founded by serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman (the same guy behind JetBlue), while Avelo Airlines was founded by Andrew Levy, a former Allegiant and United executive.
Continue reading: How Is Avelo Airlines Doing Financially?
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Avalo seems to hunt and peck for point-to-point opportunities and adjust quicker based on how it turns out. The airline also may be better at being opportunistic with regard to airport incentives.
Avelo flies from nowhere to nowhere else that I want (or need) to go, but I’ve been impressed watching from the sidelines with their ability to try routes out and launch their service in places it isn’t expected. They’re also not bothering with any kind of buy on board, further reducing their overhead. Take it a step further and bring your pilots and FAs home pretty much every night (another page from Allegiant) reducing layover costs significantly.
They could easily end up being a second underdog in the smaller-city point to point market in the US. I’m thrilled to see how their story turns out and wish them nothing but success.
Ryanair do same with planes returning to base each night. I'm surprised that Avelo offers nothing on bord for sale, given how valuable ancillary revenue is to RYR.
It seems to me that Avelo has been a lot better at finding "niches" than Breeze has. For example: New Haven. I know some people in CT who have used their service HVN-PBI and swear by it. For them, the drive to HVN is only slightly less than to BDL but HVN is small, cheap and easy to navigate and Avelo apparently does a fine job of getting them to Florida without drama. PBI tends to be have pricier fares out of the northeast, but Avelo provides a cheaper option. I can imagine that there's a lot of draw in southern CT, which is far from either BDL or any NY area airport. And, a lot of money too.
So, for those here saying that Avelo goes nowhere that you want to go, that's a pretty parochial viewpoint. But if you've ever had to fly to say, Stratford, CT or Petaluma, CA or any number of other places that Avelo serves, you'd be singing a different tune. Frankly, I'm rooting hard for Breeze to make it, but it's clear that Avelo's strategy seems to be better at this point.
Breeze tried to replicate JetBlue but the market has drastically changed since the late 90s and early 00s. Avelo is focused on finding routes the legacies aren't interested that will work.
I have flown Avelo five times now from Burbank to Salem, Oregon, and wow this airline really does fill a much needed niche! I absolutely recommend them and I sure hope the Burbank to Salem flight continues!