Avelo Airlines starts flights with an eye on Southwest

Bloomberg

One of two new US low-cost airlines, the first to debut in more than a decade, is about to begin flying just as larger rivals rush to entice customers to return to the skies this summer.
Avelo Airlines plans to begin flights on April 28 with 189-seat Boeing Co 737-800 jets going from Burbank, California, to Santa Rosa.
Additional flights in the following weeks will connect Burbank to 10 other cities and heighten competition with the airport’s biggest carrier, Southwest Airlines Co, which has expanded its own network to smaller burgs during the pandemic.
Avelo will fly nonstop to smaller cities such as Ogden, Utah, and Pasco, Washington, while eschewing routes that Southwest would defend fiercely, said Avelo Chief Executive Officer Andrew Levy.
“The chess board is a little different now,” he said in a recent interview, citing “materially lower costs” for aircraft, labour and other items amid the recent collapse in travel spending.
He added that low fares, meager frills and smaller airports will help the company grow amid an expected surge in leisure travel as US vaccinations rise.
Avelo’s motto — “refreshingly simple” — is based on the notion that smaller, secondary airports are easier to navigate and reduce travel hassles.
Avelo and Breeze Airways, the planned low-cost startup coming this spring from JetBlue founder David Neeleman, are starting early on during a nascent recovery from the industry’s worst-ever crisis.
Levy, a co-founder of Allegiant Travel Co and a former United Airlines chief financial officer, raised $125 million to establish Avelo, the operating brand of Houston Air Holdings Inc. The carrier plans to fly a half-dozen 737s by year-end, growing by about one plane per month.