Avelo Airlines has extended its Delaware flight schedule into early September.
The airline is offering base fares as low as $39 one way from Wilmington-New Castle (ILG) to Orlando and four other destinations in Florida. The nonstops operate two or three days a week. When you add in a checked bag and roll the dice on a seat (assignments are extra) you could get back and forth from the home of Disney’s magic kingdom and Universal for $160 roundtrip. Gas alone would run about $200 for a drive on I-95.
Avelo and Breeze Airways were the subject of an interesting story on the Time website. Both are working to serve underused airports in hopes of attracting enough passengers who drive to big city hubs.
Both carriers faced challenges in 2022. Avelo trimmed its West Coast schedule, due to competition and high fuel prices. Breeze had a simllar challenges.
Avelo was singled out for praise in establishing a hub in New Haven that has service to several cities that is showing signs of success. Breeze established a similar base in Hartford. Avelo is hoping to base a second jet at ILG that would allow New Haven-style expansion to other cities.
Unlike their Delaware Valley counterparts, southern New England passengers face longer drives and a lot of congestion in getting to other airports.
The key will be attracting passengers who pay enough money to make flights profitable.
Frontier Airlines filled the ILG parking lots the first time around, but an undiscliplined strategy that haphazardly added and dropped destinations led to its departure.
It did not help that American Airlines kept fares high and provided an opening for a revamped Frontier to make Philly into one of its busier detinations and made ILG irrelevant.
Southwest bringing back BWI-Oakland nonstop
Southwest Airlines is beginning to bring back nonstop long-haul routes it dropped during the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of interest to local travelers will be a daily non-stop between Baltimore-Washington Marshall and Oakland, CA beginning in September.
The route will operate with the 175-passenger Boeing 737 jet, which is a little more comfortable than the airline’s older 737s.
An Oakland airport press release noted that the Baltimore-DC region is often in the top 10 of busy travel routes for the Bay Area.
Sadly, there are no signs that Southwest plans to add a nonstop between another popular western stop, Phoenix Sky Harbor, and Philadelphia. Southwest does have nonstops to the Valley of the Sun from Baltimore.
Frontier Airlines has a daily nonstop between Philly and Sky Harbor. Fares are often on the high side under Frontier’s low fare structure that charges for luggage and seat assignments.
American has a half a dozen or so daily non-stops to Phoenix and would seem to be shrugging off the competition, especially with the recent boost from Super Bowl. Still, in early March, a Frontier passenger would pay a fraction of the $747 round trip charged by American, even with baggage fees.
Spirit Airlines adds San Juan-BWI flight
The discount carrier will add a second daily flight from Baltimore-Washington Marshall to San Juan.
That boosts the flight total to four from the airport. Southwest has relatively high fares to San Juan, a factor that might have encouraged Spirit to go head-to-head with a much larger rival.
Philadelphia has three daily nonstops to San Juan, with one each from Frontier, American and Spirit.
