Avelo Airlines announces 7 new routes out of Lakeland, including San Juan, this fall
Avelo Airlines on Wednesday announced flights to seven new cities out of Lakeland Linder International Airport starting this fall.
Trevor Yealy, Avelo's head of commercial, said the airline will begin offering flights from Lakeland to the following cities in the single "largest expansion" in the low-cost carrier's history:
Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (code ATL) starting Nov. 7 with tickets starting at $52.
Charlotte, North Carolina's Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (code USA) starting Oct. 24 with tickets starting at $52 each direction.
Hartford, Connecticut's Bradley International Airport (code BDL) starting Nov. 8, tickets starting at $72 each way.
Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire (code MHT) starting Oct. 25 with $62 tickets each way.
Delaware's Wilmington Airport near Philadelphia (code ILG) starting Nov. 7.
New York's Greater Rochester International Airport (code ROC) starting Oct. 25 with tickets at $62 each way.
San Juan, Puerto Rico's Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (code SJU) starting Oct. 26 with tickets at $89 each way.
Prior to Wednesday's news conference, The Ledger reported the seven new routes were viewable on Avelo's website. Tickets can be immediately purchased at aveloair.com.
Lakeland City Commissioner Mike Musick, the first individual to book a plane ticket on Avelo to New Haven, said he is excited about possibility of visiting San Juan.
"I'm excited and I think we've proven as a city that our population base is excited," Musick said. "I told my wife let's get our bags packed and let's go."
Commissioner Guy LaLonde, who was born in New Hampshire, said he's excited to see the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport listed as a destination. LaLonde said the airport is roughly an hour travel from Boston, but also provides easy access to central New England, good seafood and easy travel to the scenic White Mountains.
Airport Director Kris Hallstrand said that the community response and immense teamwork across the city, county and economic development partners has allowed Lakeland to quickly add seven destinations. Hallstrand emphasized that Lakeland had to start slow with one destination, or "at a crawl," to build its commercial air service before "running" full speed.
"The crawl was good for us and it was great for the airline, we really needed that," Hallstrand said. "Now, Trevor said we're in the walk. I disagree, I think we're at a brisk jog. I truly look forward to running alongside you guys in the future as we grow this operation and serve our community better."
Hallstrand said Lakeland Linder still has work to do, referencing its plans to build and grow. In the works is design and construction of a better long-term parking area for passengers. The airport also will undertake a terminal master plan to outline future expansion of Lakeland Linder's main building.
"There is more to come folks," she said. "The community participation at this airport is needed. Pay attention to the newspapers and postings. We want your input to make this the best airport for Lakeland."
Avelo plans to make a base in Lakeland
Avelo, which is pronounced so it rhymes with yellow, is a low-cost carrier based out of Houston that launched during the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2021. Its primary focus is on providing flights to secondary markets, or smaller urban cities.
The airline's announcement comes a little more than a month starting operations out of Lakeland Linder, launching the municipal-owned airport's first commercial passenger service. Its first flight was to the airline's Connecticut hub at Tweed-New Haven Airport (code HVN) on June 13.
Yealy said the public response to Avelo's commercial passenger service has been "tremendous."
"We''ve actually been outperforming other larger metro areas in the statistics and data related to that initial flight," Lakeland City Manager Shawn Sherrouse said.
Who's Avelo? What you need to know about the low-cost airline coming to Lakeland Linder
Avelo has carried more than 3,300 customers on the 24 flights the carrier has operated between Lakeland Linder and New Haven to date, according to Yealy. On average, that means flights are 95% full to capacity. Yealy said 87% of flights have been on-time, which according to U.S. Department of Transportation standards means the flights have arrived within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.
More than 40% of the tickets sold have been passengers departing from Lakeland Linder airport, Yealy said.
"It's significantly higher than our other Florida airports, which typically trend between 25% and 30% originating from the Florida airports going north," he said.
Because of this, Avelo has decided to create a base of operations in Lakeland starting in October. It will have one aircraft permanently stationed in Lakeland.
"There will be local job growth and even more affordable, reliable and convenient air service operations for customers around the area both north and south," he said.
Lakeland will join a list of six existing airline bases across nation, which include Tweed-New Haven Airport, Wilmington Airport in Delaware, Los Angeles' Hollywood Burbank Airport, North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham International Airport and the Bay Area's Sonoma County Airport.
"We don't do that lightly," Yealy said. "Parking a plane here is a big change and a big investment."
Avelo has used Orlando International Airport as a base of operations up to this point, Yealy said, but the airline's staff will have the option of transferring to Lakeland.
The carrier will be evaluating the new routes on a daily basis to determine how well they are performing, and whether destinations are more desirable on a seasonal basis. If one of the new routes is found to be underperforming, Yealy said Avelo considers whether changing the dates and times of its flights and additional marketing will help, before making any permanent decision to discontinue routes.
Putting Lakeland, Polk County on the map
Lakeland and Polk County officials have agreed to spend funds to help market Avelo's flights to local residents, as well as the region as a tourist destination.
Kris Keprios, senior tourism sales and marketing manager for Visit Central Florida, said his staff has had the chance to fly up to New Haven, have meetings with key contacts and develop relationships.
"It's proof the partnership between the county, the city and Avelo and the marketing we have been doing with those partners has been working really well," he said. "It's evidence we're ready to tackle some more destinations."
Keprios said some of the new destinations are areas that Visit Central Florida has traditionally targeted, like Atlanta, and there are some new target markets that will be brand new. The agency has put Legoland Florida Resort in Winter Haven out as one of the area's premiere attractions for families, working with the attraction's own marketing team.
"Now, visitors can get to Legoland, Bok Tower and Bonnet Springs Park so much quicker flying into Lakeland," Keprios said.
Inside Lakeland Linder's terminal, Visit Central Florida has worked with the airport staff to create an information booth. Its services team ensures the information booth is staffed whenever a flight lands or takes off.
"We are trying to provide that concierge service to the visitors who are flying directly here to Lakeland so they know all the things there are to do here," Keprios said. "They may want to venture outside the county. We want them to stay here, stay longer and spend more money in our community."
Latest flight stats on Avelo
Avelo has added two destinations since launching in Lakeland at Los Angeles' Hollywood Burbank Airport and Washington D.C.'s Dulles International Airport. It currently offers service out of 10 Florida airports including Fort Myers (RSW), Orlando (MCO), Sarasota/Bradenton (SRQ) and Tampa (TPA) as of mid-July.
The airline self-reported that it was No. 1 in on-time performance with 84.3% of all flights arriving at their destination within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, under the U.S. Department of Transportation's standards. So far this year, 84.1% of all flights have arrived on-time.
Avelo reports that 0.12% of all its flights were cancelled in June, and 0.24% of all flights this year have been cancelled so far.
Avelo's flight statistics are not tracked by the FAA in its monthly air travel consumer report, whose statistics are three months delayed.
By comparison in the FAA's most recent June Air Travel Consumer Report, Republic Airways was ranked No. 1 for having 86.9% of all flights arrive on time in April and Delta Air Lines Network ranked No. 1 for 0.3% of all operations begin cancelled in April.
Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Avelo to offer 7 new routes out of Lakeland Linder airport this fall
