Ultra-low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines made its debut on Thursday, establishing its first base at Hollywood Burbank Airport just outside Los Angeles. With fares as low as $19, Avelo plans to offer flights between secondary airports along the West Coast of the United States.
With air travel dropping drastically since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Avelo was able to take advantage of the increased gate capacity at Burbank Airport while planning to lure in customers with cheaper airfares, particularly since large carriers had scaled back their operations throughout the pandemic.
Andrew Levy, one of the co-founders of Avelo Airlines, made the following announcement: “There’s market opportunities that would have been harder for us to tackle a year ago. Demand is coming back quickly. It’s still nowhere near what it used to be so I think in the short term prices will be really low, but we’re built for that.”
Levy was previously a co-founder and president of low-cost carrier Allegiant Airlines and served as the chief financial officer of United Airlines.
While Avelo is expected to start out with 11 non-stop routes from Burbank using three Boeing 737-800 planes, it is expected to grow its fleet to at least six airplanes by the end of the year, Levy confirmed.
