America just welcomed its newest low-cost carrier. Avelo Airlines launched commercial service on April 28 with a round-trip flight within California from Burbank (BUR) to Santa Rosa (STS) in Sonoma County. Fares started at just $19 and both the outbound and return flight sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale about three weeks earlier at aveloair.com. A blend of the Spanish word for bird (ave) and the Latin word for swift (velo), Avelo promises “low fares coupled with a smooth and convenient travel experience.” They'll be flying nonstop, underserved routes between Burbank and smaller airports at 11 cities across the Western US, including Bozeman-Yellowstone, Montana; Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona; and Ogden-Salt Lake, Utah. Members of the media, as well as aviation enthusiasts from across the nation, descended upon the Burbank Airport for the first-flight festivities, which included a celebration upon landing in Santa Rosa and then a wine tasting luncheon for invited guests. One week after launch, they announced that Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN) in Connecticut would become their first East Coast base with initial flights to be offered in the third quarter.
The inaugural flight was operated by one of the carrier's three Boeing 737-800s, laid out in a very tight 189-seat configuration. These include 129 standard, slimline seats with 29" pitch and an extra-legroom section with 60 seats of 35" pitch spanning rows 1 to 8 (available for additional fees starring at $15). By comparison, the same aircraft flying for Southwest Airlines is outfitted in an all-coach configuration with 175 seats. At present, the slimline seats do recline but the carrier has plans to lock these seats in a pre-reclined position to avoid putting anyone in an extra-tight squeeze while trying to get up out of their seat during flight. They haven't yet decided if they'll keep the recline option available for the extra-legroom seats. True to its ultra low-cost business model, there are no amenities like TVs, seat-back entertainment, WI-FI or power outlets on Avelo jets. But, with fares starting at just $19 each way, you can’t complain about the lack of extras.
Despite the pandemic, this might not be a bad time for Avelo to launch, according to Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research, “This is actually a good time for them to get started because of the upcoming summer vacation period. So, this gives Avelo a few weeks to get the operational kinks sorted out,” he claimed. In addition, with all signs pointing that a recovery in leisure travel is well underway, Harteveldt thinks Avelo’s timing has an upside. “Various airlines that have reported their financials have confirmed there is very strong demand out there from the public for air travel right now,” he said. As the pace of vaccinations increases nationwide, the start-up’s timing might be fortuitous since it could capitalize on pent-up demand from pandemic-weary travelers who are increasingly ready to fly. But, Harteveldt also pointed to a drawback, namely the competition which “will be far more defensive” and “fight much more” for leisure demand than they would have in the past. Already American Airlines has announced they’ll fly the Burbank-Santa Rosa route five times daily (up from four) beginning in September. They'll also upgrade their flights from regional CRJ-900s to mainline Airbus A319s.
Flying is certainly in the new carrier’s blood. Andrew Levy, Avelo’s founder, Chairman and CEO, was a co-founder and President of Allegiant Air and a former Chief Financial Officer at United Airlines. Levy is also a board member of Copa, the leading Latin American airline. He’s not alone as the leadership team represents more than 200 years of collective aviation involvement. Chief Operating Officer Greg Baden has more than forty years of commercial airline experience and over 20,000 hours as a commercial airline pilot, having led operations at Allegiant Air, Delta and Northwest. Andre Lotter is Vice President Flight Operations and has nearly thirty years of commercial airline experience and over 10,000 hours as a commercial airline pilot. Finally, Gary Martin, Vice President of Technical Operations, led Delta’s world-class engineering and quality assurance team. He’s also been employed with Eastern Airlines, American Airlines and America West, as well as Honeywell Aerospace and Bombardier Aerospace.
With its inaugural flight from Burbank, Avelo became the first new US airline since Virgin America took to the skies in 2007. But that title won’t last for long. There’s another low-cost start-up in the wings called Breeze, led by David Neeleman, best known for founding JetBlue. Breeze Airways is closer than ever to taking off as the US Department of Transportation (DOT) recently approved an application granting them a formal “Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for Interstate Air Transportation.” This gives the new carrier until March of 2022 to begin flying passengers with up to 22 aircraft, although the airline can apply for permission to increase its fleet size. New airlines must receive such economic authority from the DOT to begin operations and must also be granted Safety Authority in the form of an “Air Carrier Certificate and Operations Specifications” from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Neeleman, who also founded Brazilian Airline Azul and was previously a co-owner of TAP Air Portugal, has said that Breeze would also focus on point-to-point flights in underserved markets, deliberately avoiding the hub-and-spoke model of most major airlines. The new carrier plans to reduce costs and expedite it's launch by initially leasing 118-seat Embraer E195 jets from Azul. The airline is also in agreement to purchase 60 new Airbus A220-300 jets which can accommodate up to 160 passengers.
Although its headquarters will be in Salt Lake City, Breeze plans to start service with routes in the Eastern US. The new carrier will begin scheduled flights on routes between “points east of the Mississippi River and primarily north-south,” Destinations will be secondary leisure markets which are affordable to budget travelers. “There’s just a lot of scraps that the big guys have left recently,” Neeleman mentioned to a reporter. “They’ve left a lot of city pairs, they’ve left a lot of other things untouched. I think we can fill that void nicely with the two aircraft types that we have coming.” Based on the details laid out in its federal filing, Breeze would be Neeleman’s first carrier without a single focus city or airport at the start. Azul took advantage of the Sao Paulo region’s then-little used Viracopos Campinas (VCP) Airport to build a hub and JetBlue tapped into the underserved domestic market from New York’s Kennedy (JFK) Airport in the early 2000s.
But that’s not the only thing that'll be different with Breeze. Ahead of the launch, Forbes had an interesting story about the new airline after having spent some time with Neeleman. They reported the airline will have a controversial approach to hiring flight attendants, which requires them to be enrolled in college and living in company housing. In other words, the airline is trying to exclude anyone who has a family, a college degree or is looking to build a career. The role of flight attendant will be more like an internship because Neeleman believes flight attendants don’t improve with years of experience and that they can get trapped in a dead-end job due to the seniority system prevalent at other air carriers. “It’s not something politically correct but it’s something David wholeheartedly believes in,” says Tony Urban, a Breeze board member who’s worked with Neeleman at several of his other airlines. Flight attendants will be paid a fixed $1,200 per month, be given $6,000 towards tuition for online coursework and live in company housing. Their role will be considered part time as they’ll work just 15 days per month. Breeze can expect some rough air ahead on this route. The largest US flight attendants union says it looks like an attempt to abuse federal work-study subsidies to hold down labor costs. “We’re going to work hard to make sure this doesn’t get off the ground,” says Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. Stay tuned for the results of that fight.
In the meantime, a year after the pandemic’s arrival, US passenger air travel remains at roughly half its pre-COVID levels and may not fully bounce back anytime soon. But that hasn’t stopped these two industry veterans and entrepreneurs. Look for flights from both low-fare carriers Avelo Airlines and Breeze Airways soon.
Until next time…stay safe.
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