Avelo Celebrates First Birthday with New Base, New Routes
Avelo Airlines turns one today, and the carrier is celebrating by opening a base in Orlando, giving a boost to an underserved airport that’s desperately been looking for more service to more cities for years now.
Avelo announced it was entering the Orlando market earlier this week, matching rival Breeze with service to Charleston, SC. But the carrier is adding two more destinations, serving MCO from both Wilmington, NC (ILM), and Baltimore. Don’t be fooled by Avelo’s release where it touts new service to Washington – it’s flying to Baltimore – we double checked.
Wilmington flights on Avelo will be year-round and 3x-weekly beginning July 1, while BWI will be 5x-weekly – but seasonal only – from June 30 to September 6.
In addition to the new routes, Avelo will base two B737s at MCO and expects to add more later in the year. It’s also bringing all of its flight attendant and pilot training to the Orlando area, expecting its new training program to be fully relocated and operational by the fourth quarter of this year – just enough time for the airline and staff to realize what it’s like living in Florida.
Southwest’s Q2 Earnings Look Similar
Southwest Airlines Q2 earnings were released Thursday and the carrier posted a $278 million loss for the quarter but is forecasting rosier days ahead. The earnings report was available 24 hours early on Wednesday to media members and investors who paid $14.99 to receive early-bird access to the data.
Its workforce grew by 3,300 people during Q1 as it bulks up for increasing demand in travel, especially for the summer. It did not breakdown the roles of each of the 3,300 new employees but it’s expected the bulk of them were hired to ensure each plane was catered with enough booze.
Second quarter revenue is expected to rise up to 12% more than Q2 2019, despite operating 7% less capacity thanks to soaring prices and WN’s new policy of pickpocketing those boarding in the C group. Southwest’s average fare during Q1 was $159, about 32% higher than Q1 last year and 5% higher than Q1 2019.
The carrier raked in $4.69 billion in gross revenue, more than double from a year ago. Southwest ended the quarter with $15.7 billion in cash, thousands of airport boarding stanchions, and $80 worth of drink coupons left behind by former CEO Gary Kelly.
Delta Receives Cape Town Approval
Two years after first requesting government approval, Delta Air Lines received the green light to begin operating a triangle route from Atlanta to Johannesburg to Cape Town then back to Atlanta. The carrier will launch service later this year on an A350.
Delta currently flies a nonstop ATL-JNB three times per week but wants to tag Cape Town to the flight for several reasons. One is operational reliability – due to the more than mile-high elevation for JNB, Delta is often forced to stop in Boston to refuel on the way home. Cape Town is just 151 feet above sea level which will allow Delta’s A350 to maximize payload and fuel and avoid stopping on the way back.
It also gets Delta a foot in the door in Cape Town while it battles United for DOT approval to begin an ATL-CPT nonstop. United has proposed that Delta and United split the available slots to Cape Town while Delta wants them all or will take its Biscoff and go home.
- Aeroflot is cooking up a state-approved scheme to issue more shares to produce more rubles for it to stay solvent.
- Aeromexico renewed its deal with Air France-KLM E&M to work on its B737 and B787 fleet.
- Asiana entered into a maintenance agreement with Delta TechOps for its B747 and B767 fleet.
- China Eastern asked the DOT to extend its alternate airport usage in China on U.S. routes through May.
- Condor will wet-lease two A320-200s from Heston Airlines this summer.
- easyJet returned six A319s that were leased through Russian state-controlled GTLK
- Go2Sky will go2sky with a new B737-800NG it acquired via lease this week.
- Gol posted a $523 million Q1 profit.
- Turkish earned a $161 million Q1 profit.
I started a new band and called it “Books.” No one will ever judge us by our covers.