Avelo shall be solely airline to fly from Delaware with 5 new Wilmington routes, crew base

Delaware is at the moment the one state with out business air service — however not for lengthy.

Extremely-low-cost startup Avelo Airways is just not solely launching 5 new routes from the state’s Wilmington Airport (ILG), but it surely’s additionally opening a crew base.

Avelo’s transfer restores air service to the First State, which was misplaced in June when Frontier Airways ended service. Flights to the airport have been on and off through the years, due largely to the airport’s shut proximity to Philadelphia. Wilmington Airport is positioned simply half-hour by automobile from Philadelphia Worldwide Airport (PHL), a hub for American Airways — making service tough to maintain for airways trying to hold locals from simply going to Philadelphia for the plentiful flight choices there.

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Now, Avelo is betting that its low fares can appeal to not solely Delaware residents, but in addition vacationers who dwell nearer to Philadelphia.

All 5 of the brand new routes are to Florida. The routes and beginning dates are as follows: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport (FLL) on Feb. 2, Southwest Florida Worldwide Airport (RSW) close to Fort Myers on Feb. 3, Orlando Worldwide Airport (MCO) on Feb. 1, Tampa Worldwide Airport (TPA) on Feb. 2 and Palm Seaside Worldwide Airport (PBI) on Feb. 4. Introductory fares on all 5 routes begin at $49 one-way and can be found for buy now on Avelo’s web site.

“The Delaware Valley area desires and deserves extra inexpensive, handy and dependable air journey,” Avelo CEO Andrew Levy mentioned in an announcement. “Avelo was based with a easy objective – to Encourage Journey. Our very low fares and nonstop flights to 5 sun-soaked Florida locations coupled with the quick and seamless expertise at Wilmington Airport will make touring simpler than ever.”

Avelo’s Wilmington-based crew will initially create at the least 35 jobs, the airline mentioned; this contains pilots, flight attendants, customer support employees and upkeep technicians. At first, the airline will base a single one among its Boeing 737s. The airline now has 11 737 NGs in its fleet — a mixture of 737-700s and 737-800s — and expects to have 16 by the top of March.

Extra: Avelo Airways CEO Andrew Levy on the airline’s path to profitability: ‘We’re actually shut’

Avelo’s announcement Thursday comes after the airline made the choice to droop its plans for a second Florida crew base at RSW.

“Sadly, the impact of Hurricane Ian has considerably altered the journey demand for this market and, due to this fact, we now have postponed our plans to determine a RSW base,” an Avelo spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. “Consequently, the 5 new routes we deliberate to start serving from RSW in November are being postponed. We are going to proceed to function our present route between [Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN)] and RSW and starting in February serve RSW from ILG.”