2 new airlines await Americans looking to fly
Americans are traveling in the greatest numbers in more than a year, and soon they will have two new leisure-oriented airlines to consider for those trips.
Both hope to draw passengers by filling in smaller strands on the spider web of airline routes crisscrossing the United States.
Avelo Airlines said Thursday that it will begin flying later this month to 11 destinations from Burbank, California. The startup plans to add other routes in the West as soon as it grows its fleet of three Boeing 737 jets.
Avelo was started by a longtime airline executive who thinks there is room for another low-fare carrier besides the several budget airlines already in the market.
“There are too few seats in the United States being offered by low-cost carriers. That’s why we think the opportunity is huge,” said Avelo Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy. “Customers want a really inexpensive way to get from Point A to Point B.”
Waiting in the wings is Breeze Airways, the latest creation of David Neeleman, who helped start Canada’s WestJet before founding JetBlue Airways and the Brazilian airline Azul.
Breeze plans to fly to “neglected, forgotten” markets, including many that larger airlines have abandoned. Breeze is currently running proving flights for the Federal Aviation Administration and could begin carrying passengers in May.
Planning for both airlines started before the pandemic, but they are starting up just as long-homebound Americans look to break out and travel. More than 1 million have been flying each day for nearly a month, and numbers are expected to rise this summer.
The last new U.S. airline was Virgin America, which began flying in 2007 and disappeared after Alaska Airlines bought it for $2.6 billion in 2016.
Levy is a former Allegiant Air and United Airlines executive who has finally achieved a years-long dream to start an airline.
Avelo’s strategy is straight out of the lowcost-carrier playbook first written by Southwest Airlines in the 1970s. That strategy involves sticking to secondary airports with lower costs and less congestion to maximize flying time.
Breeze hasn’t detailed where it will begin operations, although the airline has hinted it will be in the Southeast including Florida, a popular destination for leisure travelers. Neeleman says the timing is right.
“Leisure traffic is crazy right now. A lot of people have vaccines, and younger, healthier people are like, ‘I’m good,’ ” Neeleman said in an interview. “There is a lot of pent-up demand, probably more than the seats that are available.”