Low-cost airline will offer new nonstops to 6 Florida destinations from RDU
Avelo Airlines, a fast-growing discount carrier, is adding nonstop flights to six destinations in Florida from Raleigh-Durham International Airport and plans to establish a base at RDU, creating about 50 jobs, the airline announced Thursday.
Starting in early February, Avelo will fly nonstop to Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Myers, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Sarasota. The airline will begin flying each route three or four times a week, but hopes to expand if there’s demand, said Andrew Levy, Avelo’s founder and CEO.
“We want to get big in Florida. We believe in Florida,” Levy said in an interview. “We think it’s a terrific market. We think it’s in many cases actually becoming a year-around market, and especially from places in the Southeastern United States.”
Avelo is also excited about RDU, Levy said. The demographics favor air travel, and more people and companies are moving to the area.
“So we want to be part of this growth wave here,” he said. “We think this is a great time to get bigger in this area.”
RDU will become the airline’s fifth base of operations, along with Orlando, New Haven, Wilmington, Delaware, and Hollywood Burbank in California. Avelo will base two Boeing 737s at RDU by next spring but expects to have five to seven based in the Triangle in the next couple of years, Levy said.
To support those planes, the airline will hire about 50 employees, including pilots, flight attendants, aircraft technicians and gate agents.
Avelo arrived at RDU in May, flying five times a week between the Triangle and Tweed-New Haven Airport in Connecticut, where the airline got its start. Levy said the airline has carried more than 25,000 people between the two airports since then.
“It’s done incredibly well,” he said.
Avelo announced in August that it would begin flying three times a week between RDU and Fort Myers on Nov. 10 but put that off after Hurricane Ian devastated that part of the Gulf Coast. Levy said advance sales on those flights were also strong.
Avelo (rhymes with “hello”) is one of two low-cost carriers, along with Breeze Airways, that began flying in the spring of 2021, as the airline industry was struggling to recover from the most significant downturn in its history.
The airline’s business model is to fly from point to point, with no connecting flights, to minimize delays, cancellations and lost bags. It also generally serves exclusive routes, often to secondary airports in large metro areas.
At RDU, Avelo will be the only airline flying nonstop to Ft. Myers, Sarasota and West Palm Beach. It will have competition, though, to Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa.
Levy said as Avelo expands at RDU he hopes to begin flying to more destinations in the Northeast and Midwest.
Avelo’s single flight to New Haven now operates out of Terminal 2 at RDU, but the airline will join Spirit and Southwest in Terminal 1 when its Florida service begins Feb. 2, said RDU President and CEO Michael Landguth.
Landguth said Avelo’s growth at RDU has come rapidly but that airport officials have confidence in the airline and Levy. At a press conference Thursday, Landguth noted that Levy was a co-founder of Allegiant Air, another low-cost carrier, and is a former chief financial officer at United.
“So Andrew is very knowledgeable about starting airlines and starting very successful airlines,” Landguth said. “And that’s why we’re so excited about having him here today with his new airline.”
