Avelo Airlines is doubling down on the New Castle Airport with plans to add nine nonstop destinations this summer.
The low-cost, no frills airline has been in Delaware less than three months, but the early numbers have indicated to company executives that local travelers will support more flights. Last month, 90% of the seats on Avelo’s flights to Florida were filled, according to Avelo Head of Strategy and Planning Trevor Yealy.
Avelo’s new destinations from Delaware
Avelo will fly to each of the new destinations at least two days a week starting June 22.
- Charleston, South Carolina (CHS): Mondays and Fridays
- Daytona Beach, Florida (DAB): Mondays and Fridays
- Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina (GSP): Thursdays and Sundays
- Melbourne/Cocoa Beach, Florida (MLB): Wednesdays and Saturdays
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (MYR): Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays
- Nashville, Tennessee (BNA): Thursdays and Sundays
- Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina (RDU): Thursdays and Sundays
- Savannah, Georgia/Hilton Head, South Carolina (SAV): Wednesdays and Saturdays
- Wilmington, North Carolina (ILM): Thursdays and Sundays
Introductory rates as low as $29 are available now. Avelo charges extra for bags, reserved seating and priority boarding.
Avelo will continue flying to the five Florida destinations it launched service with: Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Tampa and West Palm Beach.
PREVIOUS REPORTING:We took the first flight on Avelo from New Castle Airport. Here’s what it was like.
Yealy said Avelo likes to start with “small and concentrated” bets and expand service if those bets pay off. The company started with “snowbird” destinations ahead of the spring break season. Its new flights were picked to appeal to summer vacationers. It’s the largest route expansion Avelo has undertaken at any airport since its founding in 2021.
Avelo’s advantage
The airline has positioned itself as a more convenient alternative to the Philadelphia and Baltimore airports. Parking at New Castle Airport is $8 per day in a lot a short walk from the terminal. With just a few flights per day, security lines are short. Passengers walk the tarmac to board.
Avelo’s 14 destinations represent the most expansive commercial service at the New Castle Airport in several years. Last month, Avelo passed 10,000 passengers, a critical threshold that opens up more federal funding for the airport. It reached the mark in about a tenth of the time it took its predecessor Frontier Airlines, which flew exclusively to Orlando for about a year.
Avelo announced its plans to come to Delaware about four months after Frontier pulled out. An important distinction between the approaches of the companies, airline officials argued at the time, was that Avelo planned to make the New Castle Airport a home base.
Unlike the larger Frontier, Avelo’s focus is on smaller, secondary airports in large markets. (Its other home bases are in Burbank, California, New Haven, Connecticut and Orlando.) To support the new flights, Avelo will base a second Boeing 737 at ILG and add 35 employees (it has 75 today).
Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
