Avelo, a not-yet-2-year-old airline, will take its first flight from the New Castle Airport on Wednesday.
The flight will mark the return of commercial service to the airport, coming eight months after Frontier Airlines’ exit. It kickstarts a six-day-a-week schedule that includes flights to five Florida airports, including Orlando, the destination of Wednesday’s inaugural flight.
When and where is Avelo flying?
Avelo will have one Boeing 737 based at the New Castle Airport to start. As part of its business plan, the company flies round trips each day to avoid the costs of overnighting crews. Avelo will fly to five Florida airports.
- Orlando: Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays
- Fort Lauderdale: Sundays and Thursdays
- Fort Myers: Mondays and Fridays
- Tampa: Sundays and Thursdays
- West Palm Beach: Wednesdays and Saturdays
PREVIOUS REPORTING:How did Delaware attract Avelo Airlines?
How much does an Avelo flight cost?
Costs vary by day of the week, destination and demand. According to Avelo’s website, you can fly to Fort Myers this month and next for as low as $39 and as much as $174. But there are fees — hidden and in plain sight — that will drive up the price.
You might see Avelo’s pricing structure referred to as “unbundled pricing.” That means they charge extra fees for bags, reserved seating and priority boarding.
For instance, for flights to Orlando, bags booked during the initial reservation cost $40, according to Avelo’s website. They will cost $50 at the airport. Both checked bags and carry-on bags are subject to the charge.
Picking your seat ahead of time will cost at least $11 and more for reservations closer to the front of the plane. Avelo has a “customer support processing charge” of $20 for every traveler booked through its customer support center and an “electronic carrier usage charge” of up to $27 for reservations completed on its website or through the support center.
Priority boarding costs $15 each way.
Why do they think it will be any different?
As Avelo representatives, airport officials and state leaders gathered on a tarmac in October to announce Avelo’s service in Delaware all the parties involved were asked why they expected Avelo to be different from Frontier or any of the other transient commercial airlines in the New Castle Airport’s history.
Frontier had lasted just over a year flying exclusively to Orlando a few times a week. Avelo, like Frontier, is a budget airline that operates on the periphery of larger companies.
FLIGHTS FROM DELAWARE: Why this time could be different for the airport
The prevailing argument that day was that Avelo is making a greater commitment to the airport and therefore is more invested in making it work. The New Castle Airport will be an Avelo home base. The company has had success targeting smaller airports in metro areas such as the Hollywood Burbank Airport and Southern Connecticut’s Tweed-New Haven Airport.
“This isn’t just another airport in the region we’re serving,” CEO Andrew Levy said in October. “Frontier, they’re a great company; they do a great job. Their principal focus was on Philadelphia. That’s not what we to do. This is where we want to be.”
Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
