The announcement of passenger service from Wilmington-New Castle Airport (ILG) by Avelo Airlines is expected on Thursday.
The airport, operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, put a teaser alert on its Facebook page on Tuesday.
News of the service came out last week, based on agreements between the start-up arline and the DRBA.
However, DRBA declined to comment except to say that negotiations were continuing. Avelo also declined to comment.
Avelo has about a dozen jets that cover East and West Coast destinations, with no long-haul service between the two coasts.
The Houston-based airline is likely to offer flights to Florida destinations from Wilmington-New Castle (ILG). Avelo had earlier announced that Orlando will be a focus city for the young carrier that operates Boeing 737 jets.
The announcement would come months after Frontier Airlines dropped twice weekly service from ILG to Orlando.
Frontier has been focusing on its Philadelphia destinations that now include about two-dozen cities.
At the time the ILFG service was dropped, Frontier and Spirit were pursuing a merger, with speculation that the transaction was a factor in that decision.
Frontier later dropped out of the bidding, with Jet Blue prevailing in the merger, which faces antitrust scrutiny.
Airlines have launched sporadic efforts in the past couple of decades to serve the airport in the only state in the union without scheduled passenger service.
The DRBA has made improvements that include the terminal and the ability to have more than one passenger jet on the ground at a time.
(See DBN’s My Take column below)
My take: Groundhog Day and Avelo eying the Wilmington-New Castle Airport
