This low-cost airline flying out of Wilmington says it could have 2.5 million potential customers in our area

Starting a commercial airline in the midst of a pandemic might sound crazy, but for Avelo Airlines, which has been flying out of Wilmington Airport for a year, the risk is paying off.

Since launching the company in 2021, the low-cost airline has flown nearly 4 million customers on almost 30,000 flights across the country. Last year Avelo flew to 44 destinations. The company has a fleet of 16 Boeing 737s and employs 1,000 employees, including around 175 pilots and 225 flight attendants.

“We’re just starting to hit profitability,” said Andrew Levy, the company’s founder, chairman, and CEO. “I do expect we will continue to grow.”

The company has focused on operating out of some smaller secondary airports across the country. Locally, since Avelo started flying out of Wilmington Airport last February, it has flown nearly 286,000 travelers on over 2,100 flights. The company has about 40 employees based out of the airport. In January, Miss Delaware and Miss Delaware Teen took an Avelo flight out of Wilmington to the Miss America pageant in Orlando, according to a video from the company.

“We are looking to build a lot of awareness and drive a lot of demand [in] airports like Wilmington,” Levy said. “Not the main airport, a secondary airport in a very large population center.”

Levy talked to The Inquirer about what Avelo offers customers out of Wilmington Airport, why it operates out of some smaller airports, and what comes next for the company.

Flying out of smaller secondary airports offers some convenient aspects for customers, Levy says.

At Wilmington, once an airplane lands, it’s a short walk for travelers of about 150 feet from the airplane to the airport to pick up luggage and be on their way, saving them time. Flying out of smaller airports like Wilmington’s also means less time sitting on the airplane while it taxis, because there are no long lines of flights waiting to take off. That, in turn, allows the company to be reliable when it comes to punctuality, he said.

“What we offer that is far better for a customers’ experience than going into Philadelphia International or LAX or LaGuardia or any of those really big airports. It’s just a much easier, more pleasant, faster, and therefore convenient experience, coupled with a really great fare,” Levy said.

He says the idea behind their plan is to “do something different: be kind of a big fish in the smaller pond. Offer customers a choice.”

Avelo’s low-cost pricing model includes selling a basic ticket and then having customers pay for additional things they might want including seat assignments, priority boarding, a checked bag, a carry-on bag, and bringing a pet onboard.

“We do believe in an unbundled pricing approach where people can pay for the things that they care about,” Levy said.

A round-trip flight from Wilmington to Orlando in March can cost $281.66 with no seat assignment or extra add-ons, according to the company’s booking website. A flight for the same dates at similar times on Frontier out of PHL costs $452.96 round-trip, according to the company’s booking website.

“We’re not doing accoutrements and fine china or anything like that, but what we are doing is we’re getting you where you want to go. It’s a fair deal,” Levy said.

Avelo started its operations out of Wilmington with five flights to Florida last year — one of PHL’s most popular states for flights in 2023. Since launching, new routes on Avelo have been added out of Wilmington and today feature the following destinations:

About 2.5 million people live near the airport and could be potential customers of Avelo, Levy says.

“The target customer is people that reside closer to Wilmington than any other airport in the region,” he said. “We don’t need 2½ million people. That’s a massive, massive market for us to be able to pull from, and we don’t need that many to make it work.”

When asked if Avelo is taking away PHL customers, Jim Tyrrell, chief revenue officer at PHL said in January that Wilmington is at the southern end of PHL’s catchment area, which means they probably do share some potential customers.

Operating out of smaller airports where there hasn’t been a lot of service in the past requires a certain amount of trial and error, Levy said. Avelo began operations at Wilmington with one airplane, grew to using two, and now is back at one again. A route to Melbourne, Fla., was cut when Avelo saw that there wasn’t enough demand to sustain that trip.

“I think we just did too much too soon in a market where we had pretty limited brand awareness,” he said. “We want to let this thing mature and just simply be patient.”

Orlando has been Avelo’s biggest market out of Wilmington. Fort Lauderdale was expected to be a second popular destination, according to the airport, and has done well, but other Florida destinations may have done even better.

No new routes are expected to be added out of Wilmington this year, but in the future, the company could bring back some seasonal destinations that could include Daytona Beach, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; and Nashville.

“Right now, we want to make what we’re doing work and work really well,” he said.

The airport also expects to use an additional airplane based out of Orlando this summer for some routes out of Wilmington.

Beyond Wilmington, the company is continuing to grow in other geographic areas. Avelo expects to add up to five more planes to its roster in 2024 and in May will add the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport (STS) in California as one of its bases.

“I think the opportunities are pretty substantial in the United States for a company that offers our product,” Levy said.