The next phase of Avelo‘s New Haven expansion has arrived, bringing with it some variety. All the planes will still head south, but none of the four new routes will touch Florida.
The significant service expansion we announced today builds on the excitement for Avelo we are seeing across Connecticut. Our Customers are telling us they would love for Avelo to fly to more places beyond Florida. These four new routes show we’re listening.
– Avelo CEO Andrew Levy
Myrtle Beach will see the most service, with flights operating six days per week (skipping Wednesdays) from New Haven. Charleston, Savannah/Hilton Head, and Nashville are the other three destinations, each operating four weekly flights. The new service launches on May 5th, with introductory fares as low as $49 on some flights. Plus the wide variety of ancillary fees for bags, assigned seats, and other services.
All flights will operate on Avelo’s 737-700 aircraft with 147 seats on board.
Avelo will now offer the only flights from Connecticut to Savannah, while the other three routes have competition from Hartford/Bradly to the north.
Read More: Avelo selects New Haven for New England hub
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said, “We are excited to see Tweed offering four new locations that will provide more leisure and business travel opportunities to New Haven residents. Since the inauguration of the first Avelo flight 100 days ago, Tweed is increasingly demonstrating to be a viable long-term transportation asset for the City and New Haven community.”
Avelo’s playbook calls for developing New Haven as its primary east coast hub. In that context this expansion – and more to come – is expected. Still, seeing the specific markets selected offers useful insight into where the company believes untapped demand lies.
Particularly interesting is that none of these routes appear in the research produced last year as part of the airport’s efforts to secure federal funding subsidies for new service.
Expanding the market to include flights from Hartford, Myrtle Beach shows very strong historical demand according to Cirium data. It also helps that Spirit Airlines operates that route. It will be flying double-daily when Avelo launches.
Avelo can work to capture some of that traffic, particularly for travelers closer to New Haven. But it will have to induce demand, likely with its lower fares, to help fill up planes to the other cities. Fortunately that’s part of its business model. But doing so in a way that delivers profitable operations is far from a certainty.
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Had the privilege of flying with them and it was such a treat! It was my first trip to Savannah to enjoy the beach destinations that I found on https://www.visitsavannah.com/tybee-island-savannahs-beach and thank God the flight service didn’t disappoint!