Raleigh, N.C., has been a big hit; Chicago, not so much.
Coming soon: Potentially Puerto Rico and other Caribbean destinations – as long as fuel prices fall back to Earth.
A senior executive at Avelo Airlines discussed the fledgling carrier’s plans for New Haven and its East Coast network at the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce’s Big Connect event on Thursday, hinting at growth to come and the company’s decision-making process.
Travis Christ, head of marketing for the Houston-based airline, told WTNH’s Dennis House, an event moderator, that Avelo founder Andrew Levy followed a path from upstart Allegiant Air to United, then back to the startup world.
“He’s more of an entrepreneur,” Christ said of Levy. “Through the pandemic he put this plan together… taking bits and pieces of what Allegiant did, which was flying to smaller cities with full-size jets and flying schedules that were not multiple days a week.”
Avelo launched its inaugural flights from Burbank, Calif., in April 2021 and debuted in New Haven by November of that year.
Innovations in aircraft design are behind the growth of low-budget carriers like Avelo and Allegiant, Christ said. Smaller, lower-cost airports were traditionally limited to small-capacity planes, resulting in very high fares per seat. Newer generations of larger-capacity aircraft like the 737 allow for the use of shorter runways like the one at Tweed, at 5,500 feet.
“For us it was a bit of serendipity,” Christ said. “And so until such time as the air as the runway gets a little bit longer, we could still do a lot with it.”
Avelo is scaling up a bit more with its latest aircraft purchases, several “special performance” 737 800s bought from a Brazilian carrier with more power to allow for longer flights. Those planes could go to Puerto Rico someday, but not while jet fuel prices remain sky-high, Christ said.
“A lot of factors kind of have to line up, and I’ll tell you one of the gating items for that right now is fuel prices,” Christ said. “It’s a long flight and that burns a lot of fuel, and until fuel prices come down it’s pretty hard for us to be able to justify that.”
In the meantime, Avelo is awaiting progress on a new terminal planned for the East Haven side of Tweed, Christ said. Parking issues and traffic have grown in tandem with passenger numbers even as some nearby residents continue to oppose Tweed expansion.
“Once those projects get moving, then we’ll be able to alleviate some of those things,” Christ said. “We’ve got growing pains, there’s no doubt, but everybody’s doing the best they can to manage them.”
Looking ahead, Christ said he sees Tweed serving more destinations in the South and adding some Caribbean destinations, in tandem with steady but limited expansion in New Haven operations.
“Demand is great and the revenue side is great, but we need the oil prices to come down,” Christ said.
Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.
